The Way of the Ninja
by Keeper of the Fallen
Summary: Everything goes well for Naruto for the last two years. That is 'til the day he loses someone special to him. Naruto finds himself on the path of revenge on Konoha. He is aided by two rogue ninja, one was originally from the the village, the other is a ninja with no home. This story will be told from these three's perspective. (The picture is of one of the OC rogue ninja)
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters within (Excluding the OC's)**_

_**Prologue**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

It's a pretty boring day. I wasn't assign any mission today, so I found my wondering aimlessly in the village. I had already did want I wanted to do today, eat Ichiraku ramen, bath in the hot springs, train. My girlfriend, Hinata Hyuga, was on a mission with her team, and Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Sai were also out. When I snapped back to reality, I found myself at Training Field. I don't really feel like moving around, so I guess I'll rest here and reflect on the past.

Two years ago, Sasuke ran away from the village to seek power from Orochimaru. I was able to stop him going. I made him realize that he had friends that didn't want the hatred he held inside to consume him, and that he'd get the strength to defeat Itachi, he just needed to be patient.

I spent the last two years, training with the Pervy Sage, learning to control the Nine-Tails' power and perfecting the Rasengan. I changed my ninja attire because the Pervy Sage that I been too noticeable with all the bright colors I was wearing, so I ended up with black-&-orange jacket and orange pants. Yeah, no real difference except for the black.

I returned to the village with a lot of welcomes, but none of them were as special as Hinata's. Hinata just straight up kissed me and confessed her feelings. I always found Hinata to be attractive and her shyness made her cute, but I was always too embarassed to admit it or even ask her out.

Time's slowly passed, seconds felt minutes. The sun was setting, and the lake reflected beautifully in it. I got up and turned to walk off, but I noticed someone across the lake. It was Ino Yamanaka. She was wearing and orange shirt and black sweatpants. She was staring into the sunset.

"Hey, Ino!" I yell, getting her attention. I walked across the lake to her. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm just enjoying the view," she said. "Um, I gotta go, okay? See ya, Naruto."

She walk off, waving farewell as she did. I waved back. I'm kinda of curious about the reason she was her, but it's none of my business. I walked back the village, and stopped for some ramen, again. Shikamaru was there.

"Hey Shikamaru, what're you doing here?"

"Can't a guy go out for some ramen?" he answered. "How you doing, Naruto?"

"I had better days," I smiled a little. "Oh, I want to ask you something."

"Ask away."

"Well," I started, recieveing my ramen. "I don't mean to be nosy, but I saw Ino by the lake. I was wondering, is there anything special about it to her?"

"Why would you asked that?"

"Well, I'm just curious," I told him. "She seemed kinda attached to the place."

"If you really want ot know, Ino had a secret childhood friend," Shikamaru explained. "I won't go into much detail because this is not my story to tell, but her friend was quite close her. They used to meet at that spot. One day, her friend never showed up, you'd think that he might have been caught up in something, but he didn't show for a week. Words were, that friend had killed ten anbu and attempted to assasinate the Thrid Hokage, but failed."

"Really? A mere kid did that?"

"Yeah, the kid went rogue after. Ran from the village, and hasn't been seen since"

"I see," I thought for a second. "So is Ino still waiting for this person?"

"Probably, she stops by there every sunset," Shikamaru said. "I bet she still believe's that her friend is innocent."

Finishing up my ramen, I thought about this story.

"What was the person's name?" I asked.

"I told you, it's not my story to tell," Shikamaru answered. "Besides, I don't know either..."

"Well, thanks for telling me about it," I said, getting up. "I gotta go, gonna see if Hinata made it back. See you later."

"Bye."

I walked over to the Hot Springs, where I found the Pervy Sage peeking the females bathing. I gave a small smile at this. No matter how much time pass, he just doesn't change. I walked on to the Hokage's Mansion. Team Kurenai had just reported in. Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru were outside, as Kurenai-sensei and Shino went in for the report.

"Hey, Hinata, look who's here," Kiba said, pointing over at me. "It's your lover-boy."

Hinata blushed a little, and walked over and hugged me.

"Hi, Naruto," she greeted me, kissing my cheek.

"How you doing, Hinata?" I asked her.

"I feel great, another mission success," she said. "How about you?"

"I was really lonely without you," I teased.

"How cute," Kiba commented. "So when you two getting married?"

"Shut it, Kiba."

"Hey, I was just kidding," Kiba said. "I'll leave you two alone. Come on, Akamaru, let's go on a walk."

Soon Hinata and I were alone, we also decided to go on a walk after two minute of standing in front of the Hokage's Mansion. We talked about how today went, her mission and just plain life. The sun had finally set, and the moon had risen.

"It's dark out now," I said. "I suggest you go home now."

"I don't want to though," Hinata replied.

"I want to be with you longer,too, I really want you to get your rest tonight," I told her. "Remember, we have a mission tomorrow. I want us to be at full energy."

"Fine."

"Don't give me that face..." I said, then I leaned over to kissed her. "I'll drop you home, okay?"

"Okay," she said cheerfully.

I walked Hinata home, gave her a farewell kiss, and left. I needed to get my rest, too. The mission tomorrow was really important, if I sleep to late tonight, they'll replace me with someone else.

The mission is an A-rank. We'll be infiltrating enemy territory. We were told that the place wasn't heavily guarded, so it would be a an easy infiltration. But still, I shouldn't take it lightly.

I made it to my apartment. It was quite a mess inside. I guess I should have cleaned it today when I had nothing to do. I don't want to deal with this now, I'm too tired. I layed down in my bed. I focused my mind on my breathing , telling myself to breathe "in" and then "out."

I drifted slowly into sleep.

_**POV: Original**_

Outside the walls of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, three anbu men are dead. Two cloaked figures stand in the midst.

"That was too easy," one of the men said.

"It's not over yet, we still need to disguise ourselves," said the other.

One of the men took off his hood. The silent wind blew the man's neck-long, brown hair. His blue eyes glistened in the moon, his face was calm.

"To think I used to call this place home."

"What're we doing here anyways?"

"I came here to do some business."

"Must be real important, we just killed three anbu."

"They attacked us first," the unhooded man said. "Just undress'em, we'll use their clothing to sneak in."

"What about the the third one, and the bodies?" asked the hooded man.

"I'll burn'em to ashes."

"That's just cruel."

The other man unhooded himself. This man had black hair that measured down to the middle of his back His eyes were dark green.

They undress two of the dead anbu, and the brown-haired man burned the bodies. They dressed into the anbu clothing. They had their own weapon to go with the attire. The brown-haired man had a katana, and the black-hair man had a large scythe that could fold together to keep hidden.

"Ready?"

"Of course."

The men put back on their cloaks and ran up the tall wall of Konoha.

_**End of Prologue**_

_** I hope you like how this story started. If you didn't, please leave comments to how I could do better. This was just the prologue of the story so I made it kinda short, but don't worry, the chapters to this story will be long and full of action.**_


	2. Tragedy Hits

_**Chapter 1: Tragedy Hits...**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

Why? Why did this happen?! If only I'd woken up, I could have stop this from happening.

My heart began to race, a surge of negativity filled my mind, a strong power began to rip through my body. Then everything went black...

"Aaaaahhhh!"

_**3 Hours Ago**_

_Ring ring_

I opened my eye, and turned off my alarm clock. I looked at the time...

"Crap!"

The clocked read 11:30. I had overslept! I jumped up from my bed, and got ready. Running out the door, I went straight towards the Hokage's Mansion. I can't believe I slept through the alarm for an hour.

I reached the Mansion in no time. I charged in to find the Grandma Tsunade's office empty. Where is she?

"Naruto! You're late!"

I turned to see Tsunade behind me. She looked really irritated from stress.

"Is there still a chance I can get into the mission?" I asked her.

"No, we already replaced you with Kiba." Grandma told me, sitting down. "You should have been here an hour ago."

Damn...

"Don't go on complaining about it, Naruto," Grandma continued, reading my thoughts. "I already have a lot in my hand. Someone had stolen important files from the office. They contained confidential information."

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Nothi-" Grandma was interrupted by an explosion outside. We both turned to a house smoking from the explosion in the distance. I charged out the nearest window to see what had happened. Once I got there I saw ten anbu surrounding two other cloaked anbu ninjas. Everyone nearby was evacuating the area.

"Stand your ground," one of the anbu yelled. "These two are not from the Leaf. They're the intruders!"

Two anbu charged at the ones in the middle. The ones in the middle drew out their weopons. One had a sword, the other a scythe. The two charging bounced back as the one with the scythe swung at them.

"I highly recommend you guys let us pass," said the intruder with the sword. "We don't want to hurt anyone."

"You stole the secert files from the Hokage's office," one of the anbu said. "We're here to retrieve them, even if it means killing you both."

"Fine," said the same intruder. "Let's do this the har-"

Before he could finish, I jump down from the building I was on.

"Who're you?" the other intruder asked.

"The one who'll stop you," I told them, charging up a Rasengan. "Now, take this!"

I charged at them, I was also backed up by two other anbu. The two intruders didn't move.

"Bad move," said one of them. "_Fire Style: Fire Wall_"

Flames erupted from the ground. I lept back, Rasengan still spinning in hand. That was too close. I looked over at the other two anbu, one of them got caught up by the attack and got burnt really bad. The other was carrying the injured one back to the others.

"Hey, kid," said the one with the scythe. "You shouldn't be going into things that aren't any of your business."

"You mess with my village, you mess with me," I told him. I got back to my feat, I could feel the Nine-tails' power rising at my will. "I won't let you pass!"

I charged at them, this time my speed was enhance by the Nine-tails. They both took a defensive stance. The one with the sword block my powered Rasengan. A normal sword would have broke by this much power, but this sword absorbed the blow. The impact between the Rasengan and the sword was explosive, I got sent flying back, and the two intruders were de-hooded. Though they were still masked, their hair was now showing. The one with the sword had neck-long, brown hair, and the other one had long, black hair.

"That's suprising," said the black-haired intruder.

"Didn't really expect such force," said the other. "You must be Naruto Uzumaki, the Nine-tails jinchuuriki."

"How'd you-"

"A kid doesn't really have that much power," interrupted the brown-haired intruder. "Restrain him, Lamina."

"Got it, cover me," answered the one named Lamina. The three of the ten anbu charged at them. "_Earth Style: Ground Trap_." (a/n: Making these up as I go...)

I found my arms and legs being cuffed to the ground. I couldn't move. The anbu were being held back by another _Fire Wall_.

"Sorry, Uzumaki, but we can't afford any nuisances," Lamina said, preparing to swing the scythe in his hands. I closed my eyes.

Two seconds passed, nothing happened. I opened my eyes to see the point of the scythe a centimeter away from my face. Lamina was still.

"What the?"

"I got'em! Rescue Naruto!" I heard Shikamaru yell.

I looked over at Shikamaru, who had Lamina under shadow possession. I gave him a little smile.

"Angel, look out!" Lamina yelled.

I looked over to see the other intruder, Angel, dodging a Chidori from Sasuke.

"Naruto, use Nine-tails!" Sasuke told me. I focused my mind on the Nine-tails chakra.

"Alright, Fox, I need some of your power," I thought. A surge of power raced through my body.

"Raaaahhh!" I broke through the cuffs that were holding me down, slipped passed that scythe that was above me and got up. "Thanks, everyone."

"It's not over yet," said one of the anbu. "We still must retrieve the files they stole."

"Got it," was what I last said before being wacked across the face by the metal pole of a scythe. I hit the ground pretty hard. I looked up to see Lamina free of Shikamaru's Shadow Possession. I got up and pulled out a kunai.

"Yeah, thats gonna really help you," Lamina said. Even though I couldn't see his face through that mask of his, I knew he was wearing a smug smile. "Now come, Naruto Uzumaki!"

I ran straight at him, performing a hand sign.

"_Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu_!" Clones of myself popped left and right. About fifty copies of myself were charging right at him.

"_Earth Style: Rock Walls_," small walls of stone surrounded Lamina. "_Pebble Storm_!"

The rock walls shot out multiple small pebbles, hitting not only me and my clones, but Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke and Sai. The guy, Angel, took safety in the air. All my clones were gone, and my body started to ache from the repeated hits of pebbles. Lamina stood, folding together his scythe and hiding it under his cloak.

"Didn't really expect much," Lamina said. Angel landed beside him. "Wanna switch? I'm bored with the Nine-tails."

"We didn't come here to play around," Angel told him. I got back to my feet, Sasuke finding his way to my side. His black shirt had some large cuts in it, but none on his body, and his gray sweats were covered in dirt. I looked over at the anbu, all of them were unconcious.

"We have to keep them distracted," Sasuke whispered to me. "Don't ask questions, just do it."

I nodded.

"Looks like you two have a plan," my attention returned to the two intruders. Angel was the one speaking. "How about we go for a little two-on-two, Lamina?"

"I thought you said we didn't come here to play," Lamina laughed. They both charged at us, their weopons hidden in their cloaks. Sasuke prepared to leap over them, activating his Sharingan. I quickly started producing a Rasengan, and ran at my targets. Sasuke was in the air, two Chidori's fully charged in both hands. Everything moved quickly, my arm got grabbed, and the Rasengan I made dissovled. Sasuke missed with his first Chidori, and his second one was stopped in its tracks because Lamina had grabbed Sasuke by his wrist and twisted it a little.

In reaction, I pulled out some of the Nine-tail's chakra, though this time it kinda burned. I found myself being coated in red chakra. I broke free of Angel's hold, and lunged at Lamina, who dodged and let Sasuke go.

"Look who decided to get serious," Angel said in a calm voice. "You really depanding on the Nine-tails, aren't you."

I didn't really want to draw out that much power, but it was accident that I didn't want to admit.

The ground began to rumble. I looked to see Choji rolling down at full speed in the Human Boulder. I got back up and charged at them full speed with the power of the Nine-tails. Lamina performed some hand signs.

"Rock Wall," a giant wall appear right behind the two, blocking Choji's way.

"That won't stop me!" I heard Choji yell.

"I didn't put it there to stop you."

"Choji, wai-" Shikamaru yelled, but it was too late, the two intruders jumped out of the way, and Choji rammed through blindedly and hit me instead. I found myself dazed, back flat on the ground.

"Lamina, hold them off," Angel ordered, Lamina drew out his scythe and fended away the others. "Naruto Uzumaki, I got a present for you..."

He brought out a folder and threw it on my chest.

"It's about your 'mission,' you should be happy you didn't go," Angel continued. "It was all a-"

A kunai knocked of the mask that Angel was wearing. His blue eye showed an expression of shock. Another object came flying fast at Angel, but he stopped it before it could hit his face. He looked at the flower in his hand.

"Wolfbane..." Angel said, then a light-blonde kunoichi appeared. At first her expression was serious then it turned into shock after seeing Angel's face. "Damn...Lamina! Let's leave! Now!"

Angel threw smokebombs everywhere. When the smoke cleared, they were gone. I looked at the area, ten unconcious anbu, three ninja in okay condition and a kunoichi in shock. There was also a file I got from Angel. I opened it and read.

I soon regretted doing so.

_**In the Hokage's Mansion**_

"It was all a set-up!" I yelled at Grandma Tsunade.

"You wer-"

"Yeah, I wasn't suppose to know you were putting me on a suicide mission..." I mind focused one thing. "You put Hinata and Kiba on this mission! You put them in danger!"

"Some sacrifices needed to be m-"

"Sacrifices! We're not things, Grandma!"

"Calm down, Naruto, there's nothing to worry about, I sent two anbu that are following the other two," she explained.

"They bett-" Akamaru came charging through the door, Kiba on his back, missing one of his arms! "Kiba!"

"..." Kiba's eye gave sign of life, but he didn't say a thing, he only stared in reponse.

"Are you okay? Where's Hinata?"

He murmured something.

"I didn't hear you. Can you repeat that?" I asked.

"She's dead!" tears fell from his eye. "I-I left her behind to f-fend for herself, a-and she d-died!"

I stared at Kiba.

"Wha..."

_**Present**_

Why? Why did this happen?! If only I'd woken up, I could have stop this from happening.

My heart began to race, a surge of negativity filled my mind, a strong power began to rip through my body. Then everything went black...

"Aaaaahhhh!"

_**To Be Continued...**_


	3. Naruto Uzumaki, The Rogue Ninja!

_**Chapter 2: Naruto Uzumaki, The Rogue Ninja!**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

I'm standing in front of the gates to the Leaf, Sakura Haruno standing by me. My body felt like it had deep burns all over it from the event that had taken place.

My mind was filled with a bunch of negativity, and I felt a strong anger and hatred fill my body, and after that...Well, let's just say I pulled out a lot of the Nine-tails' power to the point where I can't control it and black out. When I came back to conciousness, I find myself being held down multiple anbu, one part of the village was destroyed and many were seriously hurt and had been killed. You'd think I would have felt terrible about this, but I didn't. I felt no regret for doing so, I felt that the village deserved it. I even announced it out loud to the Hokage and my former friends. I felt no connection with these people, the whole village was filled with backstabbers, cowards and ninja who don't care about other people's well being, everyone was just tools used to win sensless battles that lead to another battles.

I plan on leaving the Hidden Leaf, forgetting everyone that lived here, erasing every single memory, every single moment in my mind.

"Naruto, you don't have to do this..." Sakura told me. I looked over at her. "I mean you can stay, sure people will feel uncomfortealbe with you still here, but you still have people who care about you."

"Like who?" I asked,

"Like me and Team Seven, and I'm sure the other still care," Sakura said. I looked away and stared into the open forest ahead.

"That may be true, Sakura, but I don't feel the same," I told her.

"What?"

"You heard me, I don't care about you, them or anyone else in this village."

"But Naruto-" I put a finger on her lip, and looked her in the eyes.

This girl was my childhood crush. Though I was in a relationship Hinata, I still had feeling for Sakura, but since she was in a relationship with Sasuke, I didn't tell her.

I leaned closer to her and kissed her. The few seconds that passed, felt slow, then we separated.

"Naruto..."

"Next time you see me, it won't be the Naruto you know," I warned her. "So stay away."

With that I ran off into woods, not looking back at the girl I left crying. This was the beginning of the new life of Naruto Uzumaki, rogue ninja.

_**POV: Original**_

_**In the Hokage's Mansion**_

There were four Leaf ninja in the Hokage's office, Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi, including the Hokage herself. The four ninja, who were present at the fight that had taken place hours ago, excluding Naruto Uzumaki, had came to report what info they had on the two rogue ninja.

"So all you know are their name, weapons, and chakra nature?" the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, asked, not satisfied. "Do you really think that kind of information can help, Shikamaru?!"

"It better than nothing, ma'am," Shikamaru said, scratching his head. "Do you want to hear it or not?"

"Fine, my ears are open," sighed Tsunade.

"The two intruders names are Angel and Lamina," Shikamaru started.

"Angel uses a katana made of special material that can even withstand a Nine-tail powered Rasengan," Sasuke told her. "Lamina uses a machine scythe, it can lengthen itself shorter or longer depanding on the situation, it is also made of the same special material as the katana. It is unknown of what this material is."

"Angel's chakra nature is fire, Lamina's is earth," Choji informed. "They both are very powerful when it comes to ninjustu. It is also unknown if they have any other natures."

Tsunade looked over at Ino, who was silent.

"Ino, what do you know about the intruders?"

"Angel's hair is a brown, neck-length, Lamina's is black, reaches to the middle of his back."

"I don't care about their hair, I want to know about the information you're hiding from me!"

Ino was silent for a moment. All eyes were on her.

"I-I know a lot about the intruder, Angel," Ino told everyone. "His full name is Angel Ikori, ex-shinobi of the Leaf."

"Ikori?" Tsunade said. "How the you know about the Ikori?"

"Angel, the Ikori's only son, was my secret best friend when I was young," Ino said, amny eyes widened. "The family was full of high-class anbu, so no one but the Fourth Hokage, the Third Hokage, his student, and the older, most loyal anbu members knew about the Ikori."

"I see, you know that much, huh..." Tsunade began to think. "Well, if you know that much, there's no use hiding the information from any of you."

Tsunade cleared her voice.

"The Ikori, as Ino has explained, are a family full of the best, most loyal anbu members. They were kept secret to everyone except certain people," Tsunade said. "They only had one child, Angel Ikori. He's about two years older than all of you. At age three, he had surpassed mant anbu member, including his parents."

"What happened to him? Why did he go rogue?" asked Choji.

"His family had died in a top-secret mission, he found out and went rogue at age seven. He killed ten anbu that got in his way, and had tried to assasinate the Third Hokage who was the one who gave out the mission t his parent, but failed due to lack of chakra. With the energy he had left, he ran from the village, and hasn't been seen, until now."

Everyone was silent. The boys looked at Ino to Tsunade, wondering if the two were gonna say something else about the rogue, but then Sakura Haruno burst threw the door, tears were stained on her face.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked as Sakura ran into his arms.

"Naruto! He left!" Sakura said through tears, hiding her face in Sasuke's shirt.

"What? Naruto left?! Why?!" Choji yelled.

"H-He said that he didn't want to l-live in a v-village where he doesn't care for anyone," Sakura explained.

"It's kinda like how Sasuke was leaving us two years ago," Shikamaru said. "But this time it's Naruto."

"So like last time," Sasuke said in a serious voice. "We'll bring him back like he did me."

All eyes looked at Tsunade.

"I know, I know!" Tsunade said. "I'll deploy a 6-man team, lead by Kakashi."

_**POV: Naruto**_

"Who are they?" I asked myself.

I had spent my time looking the rogue ninja. I needed their help. I'm planning to get revenge for what the Leaf had done to me. Hinata's death, the words that the Hokage used to define her people, the way that Kiba had just abandoned his teammate, I can't get it out of my head. All I can feel is hatred.

I hadn't felt so much hatred in years. I've always been the one who seem to be the one person who could stand against hatred, but look at me now. Now, I have become swallowed in the darkness that is hatred, and I'm fully aware of that, but I don't care. I felt great.

I started to get up, 'til I got pounced on by someone from the back. Once the weight on my back lifted, I looked to see a wolf in front of me, it's yellow eyes glaring at me, my pouch that carried my ninja tools in it mouth.

"Hey! Give that back!" I yelled, but the wolf ran off. I chased on behind it, reluctantly.

"What if this wolf belonged to Kakashi?" I thought while chasing the wolf anyways.

The wolf was fast, I began running low on energy fast. I focused my mind to draw out some of the Nine-tails' power, and I speed up a little faster, feeling more energized. It felt like a long while chasing this dog, and soon I lost sight of it. I kept running forward, and as fast as it disappeared, the wolf came into view, standing in one spot with two other figures. I stopped and looked at the cloaked ninja who was holding my pouch. His brown hair flowing with the wind, his blue eyes resting on me. The second was petting the wolf that had stolen my pouch in the first place. His black hair hid in his hood, and his green eyes seemed to glow in the shadow of his hood.

"We've been waiting for you, Naruto Uzumaki..."

_**To Be Continued...**_


	4. Childhood Friends

_**Chapter 3: Childhood Friends**_

_**POV: Angel**_

"We've been waiting for you, Naruto Uzumaki..."

I looked down at the blonde ninja below me from the branch I was standing on. I put a little smile on my face. I observed him closely. His eye, which stood out, were glowing a deadly red. He wasn't wearing his Leaf headband. He was still wearing that ridicilous black and orange clothing. Come on...Orange...You're a freaking asking to be hit. But still, they looked more ruined than they did the last time I saw them...Then it must be true...

"You look like a mess, blondy," I pointed out. "I guess you played Nine-tails for too long."

I saw his eye's widen.

"How'd you know that?" he asked, demanding to know.

"You can thank Fang," Lamina said, petting Fang the wolf. "Fang here as been supervising the village for us for a while. He's are animal ninja spy."

"How do you get information out of a wolf?" Naruto asked.

"Lamina here has a thing with animals," I explained. "He can understand animals through there thoughts by touching them."

I jumped down from the branch and toss Naruto his pouch. He caught it and check inside to see if anything was missing, but we didn't take anything.

"Anyway, you came to make a deal, didn't you?" I said.

"That's right, I need your help," Naruto's voice sounded serious. "I want to take revenge on the Leaf somehow."

"We don't come cheap," Lamina said. Naruto reached into his pocket and tossed us a bag.

"That should be enough, 200,000 ryo."

He came totally prepared, I guess he does really want this. To take revenge on the village, huh...

"Why do want to take revenge for?" I asked, hiding the bag in my black cloak. "What did they do to you?"

"They killed my girlfriend," he told me. "Her own teammate abandoned her and the two anbu following them on the mission didn' t even help her. The Hokage had told me straight that she saw us as tools not people. She lied to me. I can't even trust my former friends the same just because of one of them made a terrible mistake. Now I jsut don't care about them, all I care about is getting rid of this hatred swellling inside of me."

"You think revenge can make hatred disappear, huh..." I looked at him, and he nodded without hesitation. I closed my eyes. I felt the same way when I was young. "What if I told you that revenge isn't the answer."

"Then I'd tell you that 'I don't give a damn what you think, this is my choice,'" he told me.

"This is your home we're talking about, Uzumaki," Lamina said.

"I don't care."

"I guess your mind is made up," I said with a smile. "Come follow us, we have a little camp nearby. You can rest up, then we'l talk about what we'll do about your little revenge scheme."

Naruto hesitated a bit, but followed anyways. The camp we put up was well hidden. It was big, but it was good enough. We made to the camp.

"You can rest there," I pointed at a sleeping bag that had been just laid out.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

It didn't take long for Naruto to fall to sleep. Lamina, Fang and I were sitting together around a fire. The smoke couldn't get into plain view because multiple leaves were above the spot we placed the fire. Lamina was sharping his scythe, Fang was resting at his feet, and I'm playing with the fire a little out of boredom.

"It's almost sunset, Angel," Lamina said.

"So?"

"Fang told me that that blonde girl is always waiting for you to come and see her," he had my attention, but I didn't want to show it. "Planning on visiting her?"

"Well, it'll give me something to do," I got up. "Watch the camp, if Naruto wakes up, tell him I went out to find food."

"Alright," Lamina said, waving his hand, telling me to "shoo."

I ran silently toward the Training Grounds, the spot where I always met up with Ino. My heart started to race. It's been eleven years since I last talked to her, and she still been waiting for me. She was my only real friend as a kid, and as time passed, she became my childhood crush. I still have those kind of feelings for her, but I always keep that to myself. Being away from her for the first few months of going rogue drove me crazy. I somehow made it pass as a kid, but it wasn't easy. The only reason I made it this for was because I convinced myself that Ino had totally forgotten about me, that she only cared about that Uchiha kid.

The Training Grounds was just up ahead. I slowly approach it, remaining hidden, and took a peek. There was a girl with light-blonde hair in the distance. She was wearing a white blouse and a blue skirt. She was staring into the sunset like we used to as kids. Ino never forgot about me.

I snuck around to the other side of the lake. I was able to find the spot that was directly behind Ino. I heard her voice...she was talking to herself.

"You know, Angel...I was real suprised that I was able to see you again...I mean I was hoping to see you again, but I wish it wasn't in the conditions we were in...I-"

I grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth to muffle her scream, and hid her with me in the trees and bushes. Her eye met mine.

"Mmggll!" she screamed, still being muffled by my hand.

"You have to keep your voice down, Ino," I whispered, taking my hand off her lip.

"Angel, what're you doing here?" She asked me.

"I wanted to see the girl I haven't seen for eleven years," I told with a smile, I saw her blush a bit.

"You can't being around here, you know how risky it is to be with me, what if-"

"You wouldn't tell on me," I interrupted.

"What makes you think that?"

"You would have yelled when I let you talk."

She stared at me for a moment.

"W-well..ummm..."

"Look at you, lost in your own words," I laughed at her a bit.

"Shut up..." she looked away from me.

"You know Ino, I missed you...a lot," I told. "You've grown a lot since I last saw you. More than one way."

She looked at me, her face a little red.

"I missed you, too," she told me, wrapping her arms around me. "A lot more than you missed me."

I looked into her blue eyes. They were sparkling in the little sunlight we had. Unconciously, I leaned closer to her, and before I knew it, our lips met. ten seconds passed and we separated. There was a bit of saliva on her chin, so wiped it off. Her face was flush, and she looked like she was trying to figure out what had just happened.

"I have to go now," I told her. "If you want to see me again then meet me here again at midnight tomorrow."

I got up and left. my heart was beating fast.

I got back to the camp in no time. Lamina was there waiting for me, Naruto was still asleep.

"How'd it go?"

"She wasn't there," I lied.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I guess she decided not to show."

I don't won't him to know, and I didn't want to talk about. I told Lamina that I was tired, and went into my sleeping bag. I closed my eyes, trying to clear my mind.

But I couldn't...The thought that kept pestering me was the date I made with Ino...

_**End of Chapter 3...**_


	5. The Ninja with No Home

_**Chapter 4: The Ninja with No Home**_

_**POV: Lamina**_

"They've been out for quite some time, huh, Fang," I looked down at wolf laying on my lap. I petted his head. I felt a rush of words come into my head.

"You're tired yourself," Fang thought. "You can rest, I can stay and watch tonight."

"I'm not gonna leave a mutt like you keeping watch," I chuckled. "Besides, someone's getting up."

I heard someone yawn, and turned to see Naruto Uzumaki stretching out of his sleeping bag. His lazy eyes looked over at me.

"Looks like you finally got up," I said. "You've been sleeping for a long time."

"I had a really long day, Lamina," Naruto looked around. "Where's Angel?"

"Sleeping in his sleeping bag," Naruto scanned the dark area, it was midnight so I guess he couldn't see where Angel was. "He sleeps in tree. He's on those branch there."

I pointed at certain spot of the camp. Naruto looked over in that direction and nodded. He got to his feet and walked over to me and Fang by the fire.

"How'd you sleep, Uzumaki?" I asked him.

"I slept fine," he answer. "I feel more energized."

He was still standing up telling this.

"Hey, sit down and relax," I told him with a smile. "I promise, Fang won't bite."

Naruto just looked at me for a second, then finally decide to accept my request. He stayed silent for a while. I wasn't one to really want to start a conversation, I always wait for the other person to start.

"What'd you to do with those files?" Naruto finally asked.

"Oh, those things," I laughed and pointed at the fire. "The person who hired us didn't pay us the money he promised. He decided to fight us instead. He was pretty good, but it wasn't enough to beat us. When we finally had him cornered, he ran off. After that, we used to the files as fire-starters."

"Who hired you?"

"Some guy with silver hair, glasses...He was a Sound ninja."

"Kabuto!"

"Yeah, that was his name," I was suprised he knew. "What relation do you have with him?"

"Let's just say, the person he works for isn't my favorite kind of guy."

I nodded. Who would like Orochimaru?

"Any more questions?" I asked him.

He thought for a second...

"I know this isn't any of my business, but how'd you end up as a rogue ninja?" I thought about whether or not to tell. I never told anyone about my history as a rogue exceot for Angel.

"I guess I can trust you, Uzumaki," I said. "Listen well because I'm not going to repeat myself."

I looked to see if I had his attention, which I did. I got comfortable, making sure I didn't bother Fang, who was resting on my lap. I cleared my throat.

"When I was born, my parents had abandoned me right after birth. I find it kind of weird that they did, and I always wonder why," I closed my eyes for a second, then continued. "Anyways, I was just a newborn, dying of starvation...That is until a couple found me, they were freelancer traveling the world. They found me and took care of me."

I looked up at the only visible sky. There was a cresent moon in view.

"They were an interesting couple. The woman was trained to in the marital arts. She wasn't a ninja, but she also knew how to do ninjutsu. The man was weapon-master and a blacksmith. The woman trained me to use ninjustu and hand-to-hand combat. The man had trained me to use shurikens, kunais, and a scythe," I pulled out my machine scythe. "He made this for me. The blade is made from meteorite and bit of diamond."

I returned the scythe under my cloak.

"Those two died protecting me from a group of rogues. I those people stole the most precious people from me. That couple was my only family that cared for me. I was born without my bio-parent, without a place to call home, and those two willingly took me, raised me..." I felt an old hatred rise from gut. "I changed my name from that point. I became Lamina, the ninja with no home. My primary weapon was the only momento of my family, Spritus Raptor(Latin: Robber of Life)...that's the name of the scythe."

I closed my eyes, remembering the hardship of those days.

"I went to hunt the rogues that killed my family. I did find them..."

_**6 years ago**_

"Hey look, it the kid from before."

I was looking at ten rogue ninja. They all looked at me, laughing. There laughter...It's pissing me off!

I charged at them, drawing my scythe, Spritus Raptor. I sliced one of the rogue's chest. His scream stopped the laughter of the other. Their eye landed on therir bleeding comrade, who was on the ground curling in a ball.

One down.

"You're gonna pay for that kid!" They all drew out shurkiens and kunais, and threw them directly at me.

"_Earth Style: Rock Walls_," walls of stone protected me from the thrown objects. "_Explosion_!"

The wall burst and big chunck of rocks went flyin in every direction, taking out two of the remaining rogues. Seven were still standing. They were start ing to take me more seriously now.

"There's plenty more where that came from!" I yelled.

"Hey kid, you're not the only one who can use ninjutsu," one of them yelled back. "_Shadowclone Jutsu_!"

I was taken off guard. I didn't expcet them to multiple!

There were about twenty more of them now. The clone charged at me. I did my best to fend them, but they just kept coming. They must have been using the shadowclones to fight for them.

I got lost in large group of clones. I couldn't tell where the real ones were. My chakra was low...I only had enough for two jutsus. I looked around...I was surrounded by the clones still. I gather what strength I had left, and made some hand signs. I was surrounded by stone walls again. I felt my body getting heavier, and I dropped to one knee.

"I can't give in yet!" I told myself. "_Earth Style: Pebble Storm_!"

I took out most of the clones, though I was blacking out. I felt like time was skipping. First, I find myself looking at the seven rogue ninja...laughing at me. I blink, then I see another kid fighting off the rogue...then everything went black...

"Hey, get up."

I opened my eye to see a blurry figure standing before me.

"Am I dead?"

"No, you got lucky." My vision finally cleared. I was looking at a boy with long, brown hair, his bangs were kinda of covering his blue eyes.

_**Present**_

"Angel saved my life that day," I told Naruto. "And ever since, I've been with Angel, aiding him on the missions we were hired to do. I owe Mark a lot just because he saved me."

I looked at Naruto, who staring into the fire now.

"Wow, you've been through a lot," he said. I smiled. "What about Angel? What's his story?"

"His story isn't mine to tell," I told him. "He'll probably tell you himself, or you'll just figure out."

"What are you guys talking about?" I looked to see Angel walking over to us.

"We were just talking about how I became rogue."

Angel's eye looked at me, then at Naruto.

"Well, it nice to see that you two are bonding," Angel said, sitting down. I stared at him a bit, trying to figure out what he was thinking. I found it really hard to read what he was thinking. "What're you staring at?"

"Nothing," I told him plainly.

"Really?" Angel said. "Well, just stop trying to get into my head."

Damn, he knew...I guess I should have expected that. I looked at Naruto, who staring aimlessly into the fire. I bet he was trying to find the right words to start a conversation. In the corner of my eyes, I saw Angel get up.

"Well since we're all up," Angel said. "Why don't we start making plans to get back at the Leaf."

I saw Naruto's head shoot up. I guess this is what he wanted to talk about with Angel. Though it was short, I'm happy that I got to tell him my story. It might help him with his own decision, make him realize that even though he lost something precious to him, revenge isn't the answer. Revenge had almost gotten me killed. At first, revenge sure seems like a good idea. Make the person you want to take revenge on feel the pain he or she put on you. But is it really worth it? Do we need to sink as low as the person we want revenge against? I surely don't think revenge is worth it, but I'm a different person, I'm not Naruto. All I can only do what I can.

Naruto Uzumaki...What ever you decide, we'll help, but what happens from here on out is your fault.

_**End of Chapter 4**_


	6. The Offer to the Fox

_**Chapter 5: The Offer to the Fox**_

_**Somewhere in the Forest**_

It's the middle of the night, a 6-man squad was making their way through the woods. This squad was made up with Kakashi Hatake, leader of the squadron, following him was Shikamaru Nara, Sasuke Uchiha, Sai, Neji Hyuga, and Sakura Haruno. They're on a mission to track down and return Naruto Uzumaki to the village hidden in the leaves. They've been searching ever since sunset.

"We've been out here since the evening," Sakura said. "We're getting no where. Naruto could be anywhere by now."

"We shouldn't give up just yet," said Sasuke. "If it were Naruto, he wouldn't give up when he'd gotten so far."

"Sasuke's right, we can't give up," agreed Sai.

The six kept silent for a while. They all had their doubt about finding Naruto, but they all just kept going forward, hoping for the best. Minutes had past but there was still nothing. Everyone was losing hope in the situation...That is until-

"I can see a camp up ahead," Neji informed. "And Naruto's there!"

"Is he alone?" Shikamaru asked.

"No, there are two-Wait, three more with him."

"Alright everyone, you know the plan," Kakashi said.

With that the six separated.

_**POV: Naruto**_

We have been discussing about my plan to get revenge on the Leaf for quite some time. We came to conclusions on some things. I had convinced the two that I would give a message that the Leaf would never forget. I suggest we do this next evening, but Angel rejected and recommended that we wait 'til the next day. After this, I feel I might be able to live easy. I just wanted to give'em a message, that's all...But why do I feel like I want more?

"What're you thinking about?" asked Lamina, sitting down next to me.

"Nothing, I was just spacing out," I answered. "Are we moving camp tonight?"

"Yeah, Angel says we we've been here too long," I looked over at Angel, who had just finished burning the evidence that we were here.

"Do you always burn down thing that show that you were here?" I asked Angel. He glanced over.

"I find it effective," He answered. "Someone put out that fire and bury it."

Lamina stood to stomp out the fire. As he rose his foot, he froze. I thought he was justing thinking but-

"Naruto, duck!" I ducked and heard a thud. I looked to see Sasuke and Sai standing before me.

"How-"

"We're bring you back, Naruto," said Sasuke. I stood in silence for a second, then laughed.

"That's not happening," I told them, closing my eyes...Focusing ...Slowly time seemed to stop...

_**Inside Naruto**_

"I guess I'm here..."

I was in an dark, empty room. Nothing was visble except the watery floor. Though it looked empty, I still felt a strong presence. I dark, negative presence.

"I know your're there, Nine-tail," I yelled into the darkness. There was silence, all I could hear was the sound of my slow breathing.

"What do you want, you brat?!" an giant eye appeared, filled with hatred. "Are you still needing my power?!"

I walked in the direction of the eye, and slowly and giant doors appeared, a seal right in the middle of them. Behind the doors, a giant fox with a nimber of nine tails was glaring down at me.

"You look tired of being all trapped up," I told the Nine-tails.

The Nine-tails gave a low growl.

"What's it to you?!" he yelled.

"Tell you what," I started. "I'll give you a little more freedom, if you help me out."

Nine-tail looked at me for a long moment. I had his attention.

"I'll let you surface a bit, if you teach the Leaf ninja around us a lesson," a smile was worn on Nine-tails face.

"Look at you, hatred is giving you power now, huh," Nine-tails said. "What happened to the Naruto that wanted to protect his friends no matter what?"

"Shut up," I calmly said. "I just want to know that you can do it."

The Fox was silent. He seemed to be waiting for me to change my mind, but my mind was set. Nine-tails eyes closed.

"Fine."

_**POV: Angel**_

"That's not happening," Naruto said, closing his eye.

In that instant, the mood changed. I felt a dark presence radiating out of Naruto. His eyes open, but they weren't that friendly blue color, they were glowing a malicous red.

"Time to play," Naruto said, but the voice that was being used wasn't his...It was the Nine-tail's!

"Naru-" started the ninja I had fought last time we met, Sasuke Uchiha. He had been punched in the gut and was sent flying. Naruto then roundhoused kick the other one in the face, knocking him down to the ground with great impact.

Naruto eye looked over at a certain spot in the woods.

"_Wind Style: Air Bullet_!" a strong force wind was sent into the dark of the forest. "Are you just going to stand there?"

He was looking at me. I looked over at Lamina was could finally move on his own again, Fang by his side. I drew out my sword.

"I guess not," I said leap over to block an ariel attack from another Leaf ninja. This ninja was wear a standard Konoha attire, his hair was silvery color, and his left eye not only had a scar over it, but a Sharingan. "Kakashi Hatake, nice to see you again."

I flipped back to the ground, Kakashi landing on his feet, too. I looked over at Lamina, who was fending off three ninja that weren't here moments ago. I assume they're the ones that Naruto shot that Air Bullet at. Naruto, or the Nine-tails, was enjoying his fight with Sasuke and his comrade.

"So it is you, Angel Ikori," Kakashi said.

"I haven't been called that for some time now," I charged at him, sword at the ready. He took a defensive stance with a kunai in his hand. "That won't help you!"

I jumped into the air

"_Fire Style: Full Moon_..." I was surrounded by a ring of fire. "_Burst_!"

I dove down at high speed at my opponent. The ring of fire began surrounding me, turning me into a human fireball. Kakashi seemed ready...Then I noticed it.

"Crap..." Kakashi had a Lightning Blade at the ready with his other hand. "_Wind Style: Wind Cleaver_!"

The fire dissolved and I had swung my sword down, creating a deadly wave of air rushing at Kakashi. He dodged it in the nick of time. That damn Sharingan...

"Is that all y-" Naruto came out of nowhere, performing a powerful Rasengan against Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei!" the only female in the 6-man squad yelled. She mad e her way to Kakashi. "Are you okay?"

She began to perform medical ninjutsu. Looks like they came prepared.

"Damn that girl," Naruto said, his voice still somewhat suprising me. Just then Sasuke lunged at him. I dove in his way, and uppercuted him in the gut, knocking the breathe out of him. He crumbled to the ground. Naruto's eye fell on Sasuke. "Deserved it."

"Neji, now!" a voice yelled behind me. I looked over to see Lamina stuck in that Nara kid's Shadow Possession. The Neji person had taken a stance that I found familiar. He was a Hyuga.

"Wind Style: Air Bullet!" I was able to knock the Nara kid off balance, therefore freeing Lamina from his hold. Lamina twist kicked Neji in the chest, sending him flying into a tree.

I felt a presence above me, I looked up to see the other Leaf ninja diving down at me with his sword aiming down on me. I was able the block it fast enough. The guy flipped over and landed a few feet away from me.

"You're pretty good," I complimented. "But is it enough? _Fire Style: Cresent Moon Slash_!"

I slashed the open air, producing a giant wave of fire hurling itself down at the Leaf ninja. Before it could hit the ninja, he quickly pulled out a scroll and drew something. A second later, the bird he drew came to life and he was able to escape the fire. I so did not see that coming. The wave of fire had hit the trees, beginning a forest fire

"How's this for good enough," The ninja said, drawing more things into his scroll. Drawn lions start coming out of the scroll and charging at me.

"_Fire Style: Fire Wall_," the wall of flames protected me from the lion. After that a got out a kunai and wrapped a paper bomb to it. "Take this!"

I threw the kunai directly at the bird, causing it to explode, and the ninja falling down toward to ground.

"Got you, Sai," it was that medic girl. She had caught Sai before he could meet the ground.

"I'm getting tired of you," Naruto said, he then charged at her at abnormal speed, kunai pointed ahead of him.

"Rrraaaaaahhhh!"

The sound of someone being stab reached my ear, and blood flew openly in the air...

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

_**To Be Continued...**_


	7. The Story of Ikori

_**Chapter 6: The Story of Ikori**_

_**POV: Angel**_

"AAAAAHHHH!"

The medical girl was on the ground, some blood on her face. Standing in front of her was the Leaf ninja, Sai...He was stabbed through by Naruto...or the Nine-tails...Whatever. Naruto no only stabbed the kunai all the way through Sai body, he had also got half his arm though as well. Naruto's face wore a sinister smile. He pulled his arm out, and Sai fell to his knee, his eyes showed no life, then fell to the ground. Everything seemed to freeze.

"Sai..." the medical girl said, crawling over to her dead comrade. With the look on her face, she seemed to not believe what she was seeing. She looked up at the Naruto standing before her, tearing rolling from her eye. "Naruto...Why?"

Naruto answered her with a chuckle, that chuckle turned to laughter. A sick, dark laughter. I, too, could not believe what I was seeing. Naruto had just killed his former comrade and friend. Now here he was, not a tear of resentment for his friend, only a sick laughter of enjoyment. I quickly looked around the area.

The forest fire was still blazing wildly. Lamina and the Leaf ninjas were watching what had just happened. Fang was hidden in the bushes watching this whole thing. I looked back at Naruto, who's laughter was now fading and his eyes looked at the girl he had just tried to kill. I readied his kunai for another kill.

"Naruto..." the girl said, as Naruto began to go for the finally swing.

Then Kakashi blocked it, and he kicked Naruto in the gut, sending over to near I was standing. Naruto got back up to his feet and began to charge at Kakashi, but before he could make it a foot away from me, I chopped him in the neck, knocking him unconcious. I threw down some smokebombs, and Lamina, Fang and I, who was caring the unconcious Naruto, made our escape.

As soon as we knew we were at a safe distance, we stopped. I put down the unconcious Naruto, and sat down to relax.

"Can you believe what he did?" Lamina asked, satting down across me, Fang walking over to rest on his lap.

"He didn't do it, it was all the Nine-tails doing," I told him, he shook his head.

"Sure the Nine-Tails was out during the first part of the battle, but it was its first time surfacing, so it would have stayed out long," Lamina explained. "With the time that passed, Naruto had complete control of his body, even before he tried to kill that pink-haired girl."

"And how exactly the you know that?" I asked. He gave me a little smile.

"Well, you know me, I have a way with animals, monsterous or not," he answered, petting Fang as he did. "But still, It suprised me that he had the will to try and kill that ninja. I mean, the girl was his friend, and Naruto gave no sign of hesitation in trying to kill her."

"He must have a lot of hate..." I said. "That girl got lucky that she wasn't the one who died."

"How'd so much hate grow so fast?"

"We've already experienced what he's going through, so you know the answer to you're own question," I told him. "You know how it feels to lose someone special to you. I do as well. We both learned that our choices weren't really thought through and those choices somewhat back fired on us."

Lamina nodded at me

"You never really told me about what the Leaf had taken away from you."

"And I may never will. I like to keep that kind of information to myself, Lamina."

Naruto started to moan from pain, slowly reaching conciousness.

_**POV: Naruto**_

I awoke to see Mark and Lamina resting beside me, Fang was laying on Lamina's lap. Their eyes were on me as if waiting for me to say something. I went to go scratch my head, until I felt this moist stickness on my hand. I looked to see my hand covered in blood, half my sleeve was too. Then I remembered the battle with my former comrades, and how I run through Sai trying to kill Sakura. For some reason I smiled at this.

"Looks like you're back up," Angel said, pulling out his sword and using part of his cloak to clean off the dirt. "You did some crazy stuff back there, letting the Nine-tail play around for a while, killing your old friend. I guess you gave'em the message you wanted to give them. Anyway, How do you feel? You must be in a little shock."

"No, I'm not shocked at all..." I answered. "I feel great!"

Angel just looked at me for seconds then looked at Lamina. Lamina just smiled, then shook his head. I'm guessing that they might have talked about the fight and my actions. To tell you the truth, I'm don't feel sorry for what I did. Like Angel said, I gave the Leaf a message, a message that says that I'm not the same Naruto they knew, and if they get in my way, I will not hesitate to kill.

"You should really wash off that blood," Lamina said, tossing a bottle of water. "By the way, why'd ya bring out the Nine-tails? There were only six of them, we could have handled them. If not you, then me and Angel could have."

"I didn't want to waste anymore time with those nuisances," I told them.

"Wow, so serious..." Angel said, looking up at the stars. He sighed and looked over to me. "What's your next move, Naruto? You gave them the message, now we need to get into step two...If there is a step two."

"There is one," I said. "We're gonna take out the Hokage."

"What?!" Angel yelled, he and Lamina were wearing alarmed looks on their faces. Angel was now on his feet. "That's taking it a bit far, don't you think?!"

"I don't care, it's my choice, you two were only paid to follow them," I told them. Angel looked like he wanted to argue, but he shook his head and sat back down. "Do you really oppose against the idea that much?"

"No, it's nothing," he told me. He went silent for a moment. "Why kill her?"

"Because she knew, she knew that the mission was extremely dangerous as a suicide mission, but she was going to send us anyways," I explained. "Now because of her, Hinata's dead."

"You know you're doing this over one gir-" Lamina started before I held him up against a tree.

"She wasn't just a girl! I loved her! And they took her away from me!" Lamina looked into my eyes. Then I felt a hand reach my shoulder.

"Naruto, put him down, he didn't mean it," Angel said. I listened to him. "We understand why you're doing this, we have since you first came to us. We, in some ways, have also made similar decision as you have. Lamina and I just find that doing this for one person that was special to you wouldn't really help your case, seeing as you had many more friends who cared for you. We even think that you killing didn't seem right. But we're not you. We don't know how much you've been hurt, or how this hatred of your was born."

I stood there. This was the first time I heard their opinion of what I was doing. They thought that I didn't really have a good enough reason to be doing what I was doing. All I could do was give them a look and then sit down.

My hatred...My hatred was born ever since I was young. The way the whole villaged looked at me and avoided me just because of the monster inside of me. I was able to bury that hatred when I got my first mission with team 7. Ever since, I have been fighting to protect my friends. I even defended the current Hokage from the hands of death. Now all of that has changed. The Hokage I thought was kind and would never put her fellow ninja in anything that would mean death. I thought my friends would never leave one other behind, but I was wrong, way wrong. Now I regret defending these supposed friends. They not only killed a special friend, but the girl I loved. Sure, I still had the others back then, but I had already stopped caring for them. That's how much it hurt me. And part of the hatred I buried came back to me almost three times as worse.

"You have no idea what I've been through, Angel," I told him. "And to someone like you, it's not worth explaining."

Angel's blue-eyes glared at me.

"You don't have any idea what I've been through, too," Angel said. "I had it way worse than you!"

"How exactly is that?" Angel got to his feet again.

"I'm from the Leaf, too, Naruto," he was able to caught my attention. "My name is Angel Ikori, only son of the Ikori family."

"Ikori? I never heard of that name," I said.

"Only certain people were chosen to know about us," he told me. "My father and mother and their families were high pretige anbu, best of the best. My parents were sent on a highly classified mission, and like how you lost your girlfriend, my parents were killed in a type of suicide mission. I was only seven when it happened. New about my parents came to me. They told me that they were KIA. I didn't really think that they would be killed by a couple of ninja, so I snuck into the former Hokage's office and found the files on my parent's mission. Turns out they were sent to a large camp where multiple hostile ninja would be present at. My parents were told it was just a small group of ninja."

"Just like me and Hinata..." Angel nodded.

"I was filled with rage, blinded by anger. I ended up killing about ten anbu and tried to attempt to kill the Hokage," my eyes widen at this. I had heard this story before. "I had to abandon the village that day. In one day I lost everything, my family, my home and...my only friend. Everything that was important to me was either gone or I had abandoned because of my actions. You know Naruto, I didn't like the choices you were making because you still had more important people who cared for you, and you gave that all up without a second thought."

Angel stood there, waiting for me to say something.

"It's too late for me though, I already killed one of them myself, and I went to go kill another," I said. "They've probably thinking I've totally changed, which I have."

Angel just stood there.

"Yeah, whatever," Angel said, walking away. "I'm gonna go sleep. Good night."

Angel leaped into a tree. I looked over at Lamina who resting against a tree, Fang laying on his lap still.

"I'm sleeping as well, haven't slept since ever," Lamina said.

I found myself sitting alone as everyone else was snoozing away. I was thinking the story that Angel had told me through. Could he be the one that Shikamaru told me about. Is he Ino's secret friend?

Those were my last thoughts before deciding to get some rest again.

_**End of Chapter 6**_


	8. The Plan

_**I'm sorry for being slow on updating this story, I'm writing two other fanfics at the same time as I do this. But anyways, this is Chapter 7. Go on, READ!**_

_**Chapter 7: The Plan**_

_**POV: Lamina**_

The soft chirping of the birds reached my ears, waking me up from my long rest. I scanned the area, Angel was still sleeping away, same with Naruto, except for the fact that Angel was sleeping on a tree branch. My pet wolf, Fang, was moving about. I signaled him to come closer. Fang seemed to somewhat sigh, but he came over anyways. He rested on my lap, his black fur warming me a bit.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked, resting my hand on his head, preparing to communicate with him. I felt a rush run up to my head. That rush became speak.

_Quite some time now_, Fang thought.

I know some of you are wondering how and why I can do this, right? Well, it's a gift I had ever since I was young. I might of inherited it from my family I never met, or maybe I'm just special, I don't know. How this works is kind of similar to mental ninjutsu, you know like getting intel out a person's memories, ninjutsus that have to do with the brain. But in my case, I'm not focusing on the animal's memories, I focus on its current thoughts. I can do this simply by placing my hand on the animal's head, then focus my chakra to the part of the brain where thoughts and feelings are processed. This is quite helpful when it comes to communicating with Fang. You see, Fang is an ninja, too. Though he's a wolf, you can talk like a normal human, but there's only one problem, Fang's mute. So that why it's so helpful. Anyway...

_I plan on spying on the village today_, Fang told me.

"You'll probably only get the details from last night," I said, remembering the event that had taken place. I shuddered a bit. "You missed a lot when you went to hide yourself. But I could also say that you were lucky not to have been there."

_That bad?_ asked Fang. I nodded.

"You should head out while the sun's still rising," I said. Fang sighed once again.

_Fine, but there better be food when I get back, I haven't eaten since that Leaf kid joined the group_, those were Fang's last thoughts before getting off my lap and heading in the direction of the Leaf Village. I chuckled a bit about what he said.

"He's right, we haven't had anything to eat since Naruto showed up," I said to myself. I looked at the blonde ninja, who was still resting.

I kind of feel sorry for him, the hatred that was created from his girlfriend's death is blinding him from the friends he should be happy that he still has. They even fought him to bring him back, showing how much they cared for him, but Naruto didn't seem to care. Angel made him realize that last night, but Naruto excuse was that it was too late, he had already killed one of them. Maybe he was right about that, but you never know. And speaking of Angel, last night was the first time I've heard him talk about his past life. It suprises me how similar his story was to Naruto's. The only difference between them is that Naruto still has a chance to stop what he doing, and I'm sure Angel wants him to take that chance.

"So you're already up," a voice said. I glanced over at Naruto, who was now awake, his eyes looking over at me "Where's Fang?"

"He went undercover again," I told him.

"But with what happen last night, don't you think they'll regonize him?" Naruto asked.

"He didn't join the fight last night, he hid someplace so that he could still do his part," I explained. "Are you a little suprised from last night? I am, that was the first time I ever heard Angel talk about life before going rogue. You have a lot of similarities to him to how you two left the Leaf."

"I actually am, not just because of the similarities, but because I've heard the story before from one of my former friends," Naruto said. "I was asking him why one of his teammates was at the Training Grounds, he told me why she was there, and the story he told is exactly like Angel's story. Which brings me to this question. Why'd you two leave the fight yesterday?"

"We left when that blonde girl showed up, so I thought that we left because Angel didn't want to fight her," I said. "When I asked when we left the village, he said that his mask got knocked off and we couldn't afford for them to discover who we were. After last night, I'm thinking maybe that blonde girl was the only friend he had back then, which kind of backs up my thought of us leaving during that fight."

"I think that, too, considering the stuff I already heard about Angel's story," Naruto said. "By the way, do you Angel might be in-"

"She was just a childhood crush," Angel's voice said behind us, making both me and Naruto jump. We turned to see Angel staring us down from his branch and he didn't really look happy. "Like I said before, Lamina, we left because we couldn't afford being identified. And as for my feeling for that girl...They're gone. Now enough talking about me, we should plan for your little assassination."

"You seem a little grumpy..." I sighed. "Well, whatever, let's get this over with."

"Alright first things first," Angel said, taking off his cloak. He was still wearing the anbu clothing. He threw his cloak at Naruto. "Use that, it's black so you'll blend better in the shadows. And besides, the orange was seriously bothering me."

He wasn't the only one. I'm was a bit suprised that he even made it through his stealth missions with such a bright color. I reached for a pouch I was concealing in my cloak and handed it over to Naruto.

"It has everything you'll need, from needles to bomb," Naruto looked at it as if wondering how I fit so many items in a small pouch. "There's a few of each item, I'll teach you what situations you should use each of them later."

Naruto simply nodded.

"Okay, now pay attention, since you're the one who brought up the idea, you'll be the one to be taking out the Hokage. Lamina and I will do our best to keep any ninja from getting in your way, but we're not going to kill them, got it Lamina?" I nodded. "Before we infiltrate the Leaf, we'll have to create a distraction so that we'll get in easily."

"I'll have Fang plant paper bombs on one spot of their giant wall, he'll know which spot won't get anyone hurt as much people," I told them. "But a serious explosion won't get some of the anbu away from the Hokage, so I'll knock them unconcious with some medical needles."

"Naruto, you'll have to take any chance you get at the Hokage, and you're going to have to do it in one attack, too," Angel said.

"I'll use the Nine-tails for a more lethal attack," Naruto replied. Angel didn't look so sure about that idea, didn't say anything knowing Naruto wouldn't listen.

"Alright, then tonight you two prepare for tomorrow morning, and Fang and I will work on laying those paper bombs, then we'll rest 'til morning," Angel said.

"Any plan B?" I asked. There was always a plan B.

"If we do get caught, we'll have two choices, fight our way through or retreat, and I warn you two that if we retreat, we won't get a second chance," Angel answered. "Which ever we choose, that will be plan B."

The discussion ended there. I started teaching Naruto in how to use the items in the pouch at the right time, and how to converse it. I felt like I was like I was teaching him how to be an assassin. Angel said he was going to find the bag with our old clothes because he felt uncomfortable in the anbu outfit. I wanted to get back into my clothes, too.

"Alright, that's all you need to know, Naruto," I said, wrapping up my lesson on the pouch.

"Thanks for teaching me," Naruto said, as his stomach growled. It made me laugh a little 'til my own stomach growled itself. "We need food."

"I'll go hunt, you watch the camp," I told him. His expression told me he was going to ask a question. "The reason you're staying is because Angel usually doesn't like having the camp unguarded."

"Fine."

"'Kay then, if Angel comes back before me, you know what to tell him," with that I went off.

_**POV: Naruto**_

It's been about fifteen minutes since I was left alone to guard the camp. Angel went to go get his and Lamina's clothes, and Lamina went to go hunt food, not even Fang was here. The time that passed seemed to go by real slowly. I just sat on a branch and looked aimlessly at the blue sky. After the first five minutes, I started looking back at life when I came back to the Village after two years of training.

(a/n: Part of the reasons I'm making Naruto do this is to explain why Sai was here in the first place because some people could say that it would make no sense for him to be there since Sasuke was rescued.)

_**Flashback**_

"Wow, it's been long while since I was home."

It has been two long years of training, and finally I'm able to go home and see my friends. Right now I'm at the front gate of Konoha, Pervy Sage standing by my side. He too was smiling at the sight of home.

"Don't you just love the feeling of coming home, Naruto," The Pervy Sage said.

"It feels so heart-warming and refreshing," I replied.

As we walked, the Pervy Sage patted my shoulder.

"Looks like your friends are here to greet home," Pervy Sage pointing over at a pink-haired girl, who was holding hands with a black-hair guy, who I call my best friend.

"Naruto! You're back!" Sakura yelled, running over in my direction, dragging Sasuke with her.

"I'm going to go visit Tsunade, you go say hi to all your friends," Pervy Sage told me before disappearing into the crowd. Sasuke and Sakura were now standing by me.

"It's been a long time, Naruto," Sasuke said with a smile. "How have you been?"

"I've been training hard for the last two years, one of my training sessions even messed up my old clothes real badly that I had to get these," I pointed at my clothing, which was new to them, but year-old for me.

"I see you're still going with that orange color," Sakura said. "Oh, we need to introduce you to someone..."

She pointed to the guy standing next to Sasuke. I had just noticed him. He had black hair and pale skin. He was wearing black pants and a black and gray shirt with two red straps. The shirt covered only his chest and his sleeves were different, the right sleeve was long while the left was short. There was also a a small sword in its holster on strapped on his back.

"This is Sai, he's been the one substituting you on our missions," She told me. "He's a great guy once you get to know him, though he has a hard time expressing himself."

"Hello, Naruto, it's a pleasure to meet you," Sai said with a smile that kind of bothered me.

"It's nice two meet you, Sai," I said, trying to keep some rude comments from getting out.

_**End of Flashback**_

Sai...I didn't really get along with him for a while. He substituted in for Sasuke everytime Sasuke overused his Sharingan. But I slowly started liking the guy, and it felt like he was really part of the team. Well, after meeting my old team, I stumbled into my other friends. Each encounter was a blast. Even the meeting with Hinata made my...

My heart began to ache a little. The thought of Hinata brought a surge of sadness on my body. I felt the hatred inside of me boil again.

"Naruto, we're back!" Lamina yelled, appearing into my line of sight. Angel and Fang followed. They all must have met up with each other on their way back here. "I was able to catch food. Angel, can you light us a fire?"

Angel made a fire, and Lamina start cooking the meat of his catches. Angel then went to go change into his clothes. I just sat quietly, trying not to lose it.

Angel came out wearing different clothes. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a hood, black cargo pants with two pouchs attached on the back, he also wore black fingerless combat gloves, and his sword was strapped around him in its holster.

"This feels a lot better than those anbu clothes," Angel said sitting next to me. "You ready for tomorrow?"

"Why you asking?"

"I'm just wondering if you've changed your mind about the idea," Angel said. "There's still a lo-"

"Why are you trying to stop me Angel?" I asked, irritation in my voice.

"Because I don't want you to be making the same mistakes I did," Angel told me in a serious voice. "You still have a lot of friends that care for you, Do you seriously just want to throw that all away?"

"I told you it's already too late for that, Angel, I killed Sai and I tried to kill Sakura," I said, not even realizing I just said both Sakura's and Sai's name.

"And I'm telling you that it isn't, you just need to think this through, Naruto," Angel said. "I'll ask you one finally time, are you sure you want to do this, Naruto? After this your future will be no where near that village, no where near the friends you stood to protect. Once we done what we're doing there is no going back.

"I'm one-hundred percent sure," I said without hesitation. Angel just stared at me with dark eyes, then shook his head and looked over at the food, that had just been prepared.

"See, Angel, Naruto's mind is set, and we can't do anything about," Lamina said. He then cleared his throat. "Well anyways, Fang told me that the Leaf ninja that tried to rescue you reported everything, but they're still not giving up on you, Naruto. They're even asking for assistance for your retrieval. I don't know who the Hokage is sending to help but I don't think it will be much of a challenge."

"Who ever it is best no get in my way," I growled.

"Don't worry, they won't be moving today, what Fang tells me is that they don't plan on doing anything 'til tomorrow, but what they don't know is that it will be a little too late," Lamina explained. "If you guys are hungry, foods ready."

Angel and I went over to the fire where the was. Angel and I didn't say a thing, all you could here was Lamina having a conversation with Fang about what's going to happen tonight and tomorrow morning. Angel was just looking at the fire as it danced wildly in the wind. I'm wondering how the plan will go tomorrow with my relationship with Angel going downhill.

Angel, you better not get in my way...

_**End of Chapter 7**_


	9. The Silent Melody of Love

_**Chapter 8: The Silent Melody of Love**_

_**POV: Angel**_

It's nighttime now, and Fang and I are about finished planting the paper bombs. We have been here for about twenty-five minutes. Lamina is with Naruto back at the camp preparing and resting up for tomorrow morning. I have already slept enough so I'm not tired at all, and besides that, I have to meet someone at midnight.

Fang planted th last of our paper bombs, and we headed back down to ground. I sighed as I reached the ground. Planting so many paper bombs is really hard when you're trying to evade the night patrol ninja and the anbu. In front of me, Fang was waiting patiently for.

"You can go ahead of me, Fang," I told him. "I'm gonna be out here just a little longer. Tell Lamina for me."

Fang gave me a nod and walked into the darkness of the forest, leaving me to satnd alone by the walls of Konoha. I sighed as my bangs swayed with the soft blow of the wind. I looked at the full moon and the stars shining in the night sky. The sight of this made my heart ease.

"What a beautiful night..." I whispered to myself. Times like this are the only times where I can actually relax. With Lamina, I can't really show a soft side, and Naruto gets on my nerves. I'd talk to Fang if he weren't a mute. So just being alone like this is relaxing.

I don't really know how to waste time right now. I can't really walk around here considering that anbu are at watch. I don't really want to go back to camp either...I guess I'll just hide somewhere near the Training Grounds, that's where I'm supposed to meet up with Ino anyways.

It took a little while before I could get to my destination. Anbu were almost covering every corner of the outside wall. I was able to get pass them all without any trouble, but it wasn't easy. The Hokage must really want to protect her village, but to tell you the truth, it won't be enough. Lamina, Fang and I are experts at stealth, and Naruto can get dangerous with that Nine-tails in him. They won't have a chance...But why do I feel sorry for them? Is it because of Ino? Is it because this is the place I called home? I don't know, I just do...

I hid myself in a tree near the Training Grounds. It'd still be a little while before Ino showed up, so I'm left in boredom as I waited. I started to do what most people would do in this kind of situation, think about life. I sighed and closed my eyes.

Looking back before my parents died, my life seemed to be going really well. I had two caring parents, a friend that I trusted and cared for, a place to call home, and best of all...I was happy. That's all that mattered to me. Has long as I was happy, everything was okay.

Still though, my life still had its cons. No one was allowed to know of my families existence, except if they were as important as the Hokage or a well trusted friend in the anbu. I couldn't even make any friends. Though my parent didn't like the idea, I raised to know that only family can be trusted, friends can betray you at any moment. Knowing that as a kid, I no longer complained about not having any contact with the outside. All I cared about spending time with my family. That is 'til I made my first friend.

I was six-years-old, and I was getting bored of being trapped in a house while my parents where out on missions, seeing the outside world. I was allowed to go outside, but I was followed by an anbu operative, and I was only allowed to go a certain distance from the house. My home wasn't really in the Village, it was outside the walls, a few meters away. On this day, I decided to sneak out. I thought to myself, "I'm the son of the best anbu operatives, I can make it inside the Village without being caught." I was real cocky back then, but then again, aren't all kids?

I made a shadowclone of myself to cover for me. I then sneak passed the anbu operatives. It wasn't easy. With those masks on, it was hard to tell if they were looking in my direction, and there were also four of them. When I did get past them, I was really suprised and celebrated, but not for long. I headed in towards the entrance of the village and went to see what it was all like in the inside.

Back then, I thought the Village was amazing considering the fact that it was my first time being there. I walked around the Village, taking in everything as I went. But I still kept my distance away from the people. I still had my problems with trusting other people but my family. I started to get bored of the Village after a while and decided to head to the only place I hadn't seen, the Training Grounds. Now this was the place I made my friend...

_**Flashback**_

"So this is the Training Ground, huh..." I said as I scanned the open field. "It's not really much...I'm seriously not impressed..."

I had pictured this place a little differently. I thought there'd be more dangerous things to train with instead of this huge lake and these three useless stumps...What a disa-

"Hellooooooo?" I jumped at the voice behind me.

I turned to see a girl, younger than me. She had short, light blonde hair, her bangs clipped to the side. She was wearing a white shirt with orange short-sleeves and gray shorts. Her blue eyes gave off a sort of warmth with her smile.

"Wh-where'd you come from?" I asked, taking a step backwards before falling into the lake. "Oww..."

The girl giggled and walked over, offering me her hand. I just stared at her.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked still holding out her hand.

"I don't need your help," I told her, getting up from the water, ignoring her hand. I focused my chakra into my feet so that I could stand on the surface of the water. The girl looked at me, amazement on her face.

"How're you doing that?!" the girl asked, walking into the lake to try, but her feet sank into the water. "I wish I could that...Can you teach me?"

"No," I said plainly. "I don't even know you."

I walked onto the grass and began to walk away.

"Wait!" the girl said, running into me as I turned around, causing both o+f us to fall. I winced as I hit the ground. The girl was laying on top of me, her weight pressed against me. Her head slowly lifted up. "Oww...Are you okay?"

Her face was closely above mine as she asked this. I felt my face burn up a bit.

"I-I'm fine," I said as she got off me. With her off me, I got up from the ground. "Now what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh yeah," she put out her hand and smiled. "My name is Ino Yamanaka. What's your name?"

"My name doesn't matter," I told Ino. Ino put down her hand and put on a kind of serious face. It was kinda cute...

"Come on, that's not how you make friends," Ino said.

"Friends...I can't have friends," I told her.

"Huh? What do you mean you can't have friends? Anyone can have friends, you just got to want them," She told me.

"That's the thing, I don't want friends," Ino stared at me with a suprised expression.

"Why don't you want friends?" Ino asked.

"I was told that only family can be trusted, people like friends can betray you, so they can't be trusted," I told her. "That's why I don't want friends. They're useless to have."

"That's not true," her words caught me off guard. "Friends who betray each other aren't friends at all, even I know that. Real friends will always be there for each other, they'd listen to each others' problems, laugh together. Just like family. Don't you want that?"

I stood in silence, slowly taking the words spoken to me. Friends...are like family? Is that really true? If friends are really like she says then maybe...

I slowly put out my hand. Unsure of what to say, I introduced myself.

"M-my name is Angel..." I said. "Angel Ikori."

_**End of Flashback**_

After that, we talked a little, and before I knew it, I needed to head home. I told Ino that she shouldn't tell anyone about me or I'd get in trouble and she did as I told. We also promised that we'd meet here at every sunset. I slowly started thinking that having a friend was great and that I wanted more, but I still couldn't. I was smart enough to know that the more friends I have, the more people will know about me, and if word reaches to the Hokage or another person who know about my family, I'd get scolded and they'd put up more guards around the perimeter. And maybe something would happen to the friends I made, and I didn't want that.

It was a kinda sad but great childhood...

I started hearing footsteps coming from the other side of the lake. I looked to see a teenage girl with long, light blonde hair. She was wearing the purple clothing she wore yesterday at the first fight with Leaf. She probably just got done with some sort of mission. I slowly came down the tree and made my way to her in the shadows.

I was able to make it a few feet behind her without her detecting me. I slow took steps toward her, feeling my heart pounding against my chest as I got closer to her 'til finally I was close enough to wrap my arms around her.

"Angel..." Ino said, kind of jumping as I held her in my arms. "So yesterday was real..."

"Why wouldn't it be?" I smirked. "How's things been since then?"

"What do you think..." her voice was a little cold. Then I remembered last night.

"My bad..." I said, letting her go. Real smooth, Angel, real smooth.

I walked passed her and onto the water. I stared at the moon as it shined down on me.

"I know you didn't mean it, Angel," Ino said, standing by my side, her eyes glittering in the moonlight. "Anyways, how have you been?"

"I'm been doing great, and I feel even better now that I'm here with you," I told her. She gave a small smile.

"You've been gone for almost over ten years, don't you miss home?" Ino asked. I could see her staring at me from the corner of my eye. I sighed.

"I do sometimes," I answered. "I always think of what could have been if I hadn't done what I did. Maybe I could have made more friends like I wanted to after meeting you. That would have been nice."

"You still can, Angel, You can still come home and make those friends," Ino told me as I looked her in the eyes. I gave her a soft smile.

"Maybe I can, but considering what I've done and what I'm about to do, I don't think it will be helping my case," I told her.

"What do you mean 'what I'm about to do'? What do you have planned?" she asked me.

"It none of your concern for right now..." I told her, looking away.

I could hear the soft splashes of water as Ino took steps towards. As the splashes stopped, I felt her arms wrap around me and her head rest on my chest. In response, I slowly held her closer to me and looked down into beautiful blue eyes. She was staring at me softly, and wore a warm smile on her face. The bangs of her hair danced slowly in the wind, as did mine.

"I don't mind the secrets, Angel, but I want you to know one thing," she said. "Whatever you decided, I'll always be on your side."

I felt the words pierce my heart. To hear that not only made me feel at ease, but it also pained me, considering what I have chosen to do.

"Don't say that..." I said, leaning closer to her and feeling our lips meet.

The seconds passing felt slow. I felt like I was slowly drifting from reality and sinking into a fantasy world where only us two existed. The sensation I'm feeling is quite blissful. The feeling of her soft lips, the way our tongues danced to the silent melody of love, to hold the girl I deeply loved...There was nothing like this, nothing. As our lips separated, I looked into her eyes once more, almost feeling lost in the moment.

"Don't leave me," Ino said, tightening her grip around me.

"I'm sorry, Ino, but I can't stay," it pained me to tell her.

"Then I'll go with you, I'll leave the Leaf and be with you," she told me.

"You have to stay here, this is your home," I said as she hid her face on my chest. "Besides, you might get badly hurt when your with me, and I don't want that."

I felt my shirt getting soak with tears.

"Hey, don't cry," I told her. "I'm only doing this because I care about you."

For a short while, she was silent 'til she mumbled something that I couldn't really make out.

"Can you repeat that?"

"So, this is the last night we'll ever see each other?" she repeated in a louder voice.

"You can put it like that," I replied. "So for this night, I'll be yours until sunrise. I'll allow you to do whatever you want."

She looked up at me in silence, probably thinking.

"I want you to close your eyes and stay still, okay?" I nodded and did as commanded.

I felt her arms let go of me and the sound of the soft splashes were back into play. The splashes seemed to go slowly around me. I felt my heart pounding as the suspense of what was going on around me rose. I felt a warm touch of her hand on my neck. It slowly tracked down from my neck to the bottom of my shirt. I felt the cold breeze of the wind as my shirt was slowly lifted up.

"Raise your arms," Ino voice said softly. I raised my arms as my shirt and holster was taken off.

I felt her hands and her head rest on my chest. I could also feel the warmth of her breathe. One of her hands reached to my face and her lips touched mine. I felt like my life was being drained away in the pleasure of the moment. Before I could lose myself in the moment, I swept Ino into my arms. I opened my eyes to see Ino all flushed, her purple vest buttoned down partially and my shirt was in her hand. She looked away from me in embarassment.

"I told you to close your eye and keep still..." she said, though she didn't sound angry.

I chuckled a bit. As she peeked over at me from the corner of her eye, I gave her a smile.

"You can punish me when we're not on water," I told her, jumping into the air and landing on the grassy ground of the Training Grounds.

As I put her back on her two feet, I unconciously continued what we were doing before. Though, Ino was caught off guard and lost balance of herself, so we ended up on the ground, but our lips didn't separate. I felt my thoughts rushing through my head as we continued. I felt like I couldn't control myself, so I slowly pushed away from her. We were both breathing heavily as we stared into each others eyes. We both were lying on the ground, side by side, face to face. I felt her finger trail up my chest up to my face. She gave me a small, warm smile.

"I want you to take good care of me tonight, okay?" she told me as she unbuttoned her vest. I gave her a slight nod as she sat on top of me, taking her hair out of its ponytail so that now it was down. It tickled a bit as it brushed my skin.

She leaned down on me as she slowly licked the side of my neck, sending a chill of pleasure down my spine. I could feel her bare chest pressing against mine as our lips met. The sensation of this feeling made it feel like the world around us was disappearing, and that it was only us two. I could feel myself drowning in absolute bliss, losing my self-control. The only thoughts rushing through my head was how much I wanted this...How much I wanted her. I began to forget about everything, my past, the beautiful sky, even the plan with Naruto and Lamina. It all faded away.

Time felt like forever as we continued. Seconds felt like minutes as minutes felt like hours. Before I knew it, two hours had passed when we had finally stopped. I was now lying beside Ino, still shirtless because Ino was using my shirt as a mat. My sword holster was strapped around a branch. Ino was still somewhat dressed, though her vest was still unbuttoned and barely covering her chest.

"Come on, you have to fix yourself, Ino," I told her, buttoning up her vest.

"Don't you want to keep going?" Ino asked in a soft voice.

"Let's take a break for right now," I said.

We were silent for a while, just staring at each other, until-

"Do you remember the time you promised that you'd always be there to protect me whenever I called?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, I made that promise when we were kids," I replied. "What about it?"

"I was wondering, can you promise me another thing?" the way she was looking at me seemed to plead me to say "yes".

"It depands on what you want me to promise to," I answered.

"Can you promise me that no matter what, no matter how far apart we are, no matter how long we haven't seen one another, that you'd never forget about me?" I gave her a little smile as I put my arms around her and brought her close to me.

"I'll promise you that if you promise you won't forget about me," she seemed to blush a little. I leaned in to kiss her-

That's when I heard the familiar sound of rapid chirping.

I pushed Ino out of the way, grabbing my shirt off the ground, and rolled over to the direction to where my sword was strapped. Almost a second later, Sasuke Uchiha charged down with a Chidori, one of Kakashi Hatake's original moves, on the spot where Ino and I were lying. His eye looked at my direction as I put on my shirt and strapped on my holster. They were a red tint, what I assumed was the Uchiha's kekkei genkai, the Sharingan.

"Raaaaahhh!" Sasuke yelled, charging at me with another Chidori. I quickly glanced over at Ino, who wore an expression of shock on her face. I waved to her a farewell and lept into the shadows of the forest, Sasuke still chasing me down. "You're not getting away!"

I quickly performed some hand signs.

"_Wind Style: Wind Cleavers_!" I blew a gust of wind that went at a speed fast enough to slice through trees, but Sasuke just jumped over and attempted to dive on me with a his jutsu. He missed but rebounded with more speed.

The chase went deep into the forest. We were quite far from the Village. Sasuke wouldn't let up, he just kept caming at me with that one Chidori. I only performed jutsus that would slow him down.

"Give it up!" Sasuke yelled. "You're not going to lose me!"

"Then I'll stop running," I said, performing a new set of hand signs while heading towards the ground. Sasuke came down, still charging at me with the same quick speed. "_Fire Style: Shooting Star_!"

Flames began to coat my body and I charged at Sasuke with a burst of speed. I ducked down to dodge his Chidori and then kneed him in the stomach with a giant impact. With Sasuke still taking in the hit, I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him on the ground, which crumbled and cracked. The Chidori dissolved and Sasuke was coughing up blood. I had him pinned to the ground, kunai at the ready.

"What do you want, Uchiha?" I asked as he glared at me with his Sharingan. But instead of him answering-

"Sasuke?" a soft female voice said from the left of me. Sasuke and I glanced over to see who it was...

It was a black-hair girl. Her light purple and white sweater was torn in some parts, her pants in the same condition. Two words slipped from Sasuke's mouth...

"No way..."

_**To be Continued...**_


	10. The Mission Begins

_**Chapter 9: The Mission Begins...**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

"Naruto, get up."

Lamina, wearing his normal clothes now, shook me awake. Lamina was wearing a crimson shirt with a black leather trench coat over it, his pants were the same as Angel's. I got up and looked around. Sunlight was making its through the many leaves of the trees, and the sound of birds chirping in the distance reached my ear. Lamina was the only one with me in the camp...

"Where's Fang and Angel?" I asked.

"Fang's waiting for my signal to detonate the paper bombs," Lamina answer, cleaning his scythe, Spritus Raptor as he named it. "As for Angel, he's been a no show since last night."

"So he quit on us?" no real suprise in my voice.

"It would seem so, but I highly doubt it. Angel's not one to really give up on something, even if he hates it," Lamina replied, putting his scythe in a hidden holster under his trench coat. "But there's no need to worry if he doesn't show up, I can still open up a path for you without problem."

I gave him as little nod and started putting on the cloak that Angel gave me. I checked if the tools that Lamina gave me were all there and in check. I jumped to the top of one of the trees to look at the sun. Looking at the location of it in the sky, I could tell that it was morning still. I then looked in the other direction where the Village stood. I felt a little disgusted by looking at it as it stood tall above the forest, all high and mighty...But still, I felt a little remorse...

I shook my head, trying to shake off the feeling. I then sighed and jumped back down to ground level.

"You ready?" Lamina asked. I gave him a slight nod. "Then let's get a move on, shall we?"

We silently headed in the direction of the Leaf Village. No thoughts were rushing through my head. I don't care if the place I'm going against used to be the place I called home, neither do I care that I'm about to kill one of the people I used to really respect. I don't even care if I have to kill anyone who'll get in my way. I know Angel said to not kill anyone else but the target, but this wasn't his plan to begin with. It was mine. So I make the decisions. And besides, Angel isn't even here.

Lamina and I came into a complete stop near the entrance to the Village. Lamina glanced over at me and gave me a nod before heading off to find a good place to cover me. I hid in the bush, putting on the hood of the cloak so I'd be less noticeable, waiting for the second signal to move.

In the distance, a loud, bird-like whistle echoed through the air. Not a second after, a sound of a huge explosion reached my hears. I charged in through the gate, which was unguarded for the jonin that were here were at the site of the exposion. I began making my way through the Village, weaving through quicker paths, evading contact with other people. There were many people scattered everywhere. People running to the site of the explosion, people panicking, and people trying to bring their children to safety. Everything seemed chaot-

"You! Stop right there!" yelled an anbu operative as a made a complete stop. "Who're you?!"

I went in to reach for a kunai in my pouch, but a shuriken suddenly bounced off the wall, causing the anbu operative turn his head, where a needle impaled him in the neck. As the anbu operative dropped to the ground, I walked over to him. As I looked at him, I began to remember my first actual mission with Team 7, where Haku had done the same thing to Zabuza Momochi. This person seemed dead, but it will only be like that temporarly. I looked off into the distance trying to find Lamina, but failed to. I just put a small smile on my face and moved on, heading to my same destination, which was getting closer and closer.

I chuckled a bit.

Looks like I won't have t be using the Nine-tails for this after all.

_**POV: Lamina**_

_**Moments ago...**_

"Looks like one of the Leaf anbu operatives got to him."

I reached for two items in one of my pouches, a shuriken and a senbon needle. I threw the shuriken, from a long distance, at one of the walls in the alley, and quickly threw the neeedle after. The anbu operative's head looked in the direction of where the shuriken hit and moments after he dropped to the ground, telling me that the senbon needle I threw hit him directly on the side of the neck.

The figure that was Naruto walked over to the temporarly dead ninja. His body then turned towards my direction, as if scanning the sky. He was probably trying to spot me, but at this distance it'd be difficult to see me, including the fact that I'm well hidden on the roofs of these houses. Naruto then turned back around and headed through quick paths to the Hokage's Mansion, as Angel said it was called when we first stole those documents a few days back.

I moved roof to roof, staying hidden as I did, as I was following Naruto to provide him cover. Naruto was doing his best to not get spotted, which made my job easier. And even though I'm not with him to hear him say so, I knew that Naruto was thinking how easy this was going to be. He probably doesn't have to even use the Nine-tails. I really hoping that he doesn't have to resort to that. If he has to use the Nine-tails, there will be more bloodshed, and as Angel ordered before he disappeared was not to kill anyone but the Hokage. Though I can easily disobey this, I choose not to. I have a lot of respect for Angel and I don't really like going against his orders. But in Naruto' case, he's probably thinking that now that Angel isn't here, he's in charge, which is kinda true. I mean this was his idea in the first place.

I gave off a slight sigh and continued what I was doing.

I watched as Naruto continued on to the destination. I looked into the direction of the Hokage's Mansion, and the sight put a little smile on my face. The Hokage herself was out in the open, staring in the direction of explosion. Standing by her were two anbu operatives and another female, short, black hair, wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt with the Konoha vest over it and black pants.

I reached for three more senbon needle and threw them at the three stamding by the Hokage. Two of the four figures dropped. The other kuinochi stood, seemingly holding the needle that was supposed to hit her neck. Both the Hokage and kuinochi seemed to be staring my way...

"Crap..." I said as I began to move to a different roof, but it was too late. Standing in front of me was the kuinochi who was standing by the Hokage, seriousness on her face. "That was fast."

"Make it easy on yourself and surrender," she told me.

"I'd rather be taken by force," I said before leaping onto another roof to escape. She chased after me without hesitation. I went roof to roof trying to keep the Hokage's Mansion in sight, but that's going to be hard, considering the fact that I need to shake off this woman.

A few senbon needle were thrown at me, but I easily dodged.

"Is that all you got?" I laughed as a kunai flew past my face. I lept back as the kunai, which had a paper bomb attached to it, exploded. I landed on another set of roofs. "That was-"

The kuinochi came at with relentless kicks and punches. I dodged quickly as each was thrown at me, until I found myself walking backwards into a wall.

"Damn-"

"_Ninja Art: Poison Fog_!" the kuinochi lept back as a purple fog of poison began to surround me. I lept into the air to escape, coughing a bit.

"Man, I took in some..." I said as I staggered when I landed. I didn't have time to spare with this, so I charged at her, drawing out Spritus Raptor.

The kuinochi wore a suprised expression as she dodged my first swing. I can't afford to lose anymore time now that I've been exposed to poison, so I didn't let up, I relentlessly swung. Each swing meaning...to-

I stopped attacking , trying to calm down before I lose it. The kuinochi and I were on opposite roofs, staring each other down, catching our breathes. Though unlike her, I could feel the poison spreading through my body, which is bad, considering the fact that I'm the only one her to back Naruto up. Though, knowing this doesn't give the previlage to kill. There are other ways to get out of this situation-

"Shizune, are you alright?" said a pink-haired girl as she landed next to Shizune on the opposite. She was followed by another, male, black hair, wearing similar clothes to Shizune.

"Sakura, Shikamaru! What're you two doing here?" Shizune asked.

"We couldn't help but notice you fighting this guy," Shikamaru's eyes glaring at me. "He must be Lamina, am I right?"

"Was it that obvious?" I said, managing a small smile. "I don't have time for this. I suggest you three get out of my way before I get serious."

"You're not going anywhere!" Sakura yelled, jumping into the air. I dodged quickly to avoid the giant impact of her punch when she hit the roof...She's a bit scary...

She came at with a lot of force in her attacks. I can't dodge as well as I did with Shizune because of the poison, so I had to block each one. I felt like I couldn't really do anything. Her punches and kicks were coming at me relentlessly and my reflexs aren't fast enough to counter.

"Hey, what's wrong? You don't looks so good!" Sakura said. She brought her arm back to give it more force when it hit me. I took this moment to counter-attack.

"Wide open..." I said, sending a hard punch at her stomach. As she bent forward, I kneed in her the face, sending her flying backwards, but I wasn't done. Before she was out of arms reach, I grabbed her by her ankles and slammed her back onto the roof. As Sakura began to gasp for air, I notice a black shadow making its way to me. "That won't be happening again."

I lept backwards to avoid being captured in Shikamaru's Shadow Possession. I quickly grabbed two smoke bombs and threw them at Shizune and Shikamaru, blinding them with smoke. I dived in and made my way to Shikamaru, who I was able to catch off guard.

"Take a nap..." I whispered to him as a chopped him on the side of the neck, knocking him unconcious. As he dropped to the ground, I was to catch sight Shizune. I went at her quickly, drawing out one senbon needle. As I got closer, I was able to see the shock on Shizune's face as I came into her view and-

A strong gust of wind pushed me back, sending me flying backwards. I looked behind me and saw a figure getting closer and closer as I flew back. It was a puppet, all four arms with a large needle sticking out at the end of each, dripping with poison...

I quickly drew out my scythe and swung at the top of the roof as hard as I could. The blade had made its way into the roof and brought me to a complete stop. I then reached for to kunai with paper bombs wrapped around them and threw them at the puppet. As the paper bombs exploded, the puppet came out of the smoke of the explosion, unscathed. The puppet made its way back to the puppetmaster, who was wearing black clothing and he had purple...make-up on his face? Well anyways, he was alone. Standing next to him was a blonde kuinochi holding a giant fan.

"For someone who has poison in his system, you sure react fast."

_**POV: Naruto**_

_**Moments before Lamina's fight with Shizune...**_

"Almost there..."

I'm still making my way through the Village, avoiding as much attention as possible. The Hokage's Mansion was now closer...I could feel my heart pounding against my chest with excitment. Soon, my name will be known across the Five Countries, they will know me as "Naruto Uzumaki, the ninja who brought down the Hokage!" Then I will be acknowledged by not only the Leaf, but by the whole Shinobi world!

I am now in front of the Hokage's Mansion, the Hokage stood on the top of the building, staring off into the distance. This was perfect! I ran up the wall as quickly as I could. I lept into the air, kunai in my hand, and dived at my target.

She only glanced at me as I got kicked off course, staggering on the roof of the building. I looked over to see who hit me, but what I saw caught me off guard.

Standing before was a large group consisting of Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka, Kiba, Akamaru, Shino, Neji, Lee, Tenten, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino. All were wearing quite serious faces, including the Hokage herself. As I took this all in, I couldn't help but smile.

"Looks like almost the whole party is here! So I guess you're all not here just to welcome me back, are you?" I joked.

"Naruto, what happened to you?" Iruka asked, a pitch of sadness in his voice.

"If you don't like my new personality, I suggest you blame those two," I pointed at Kiba and the Hokage. "They took Hinata away from me and not only that, but also made me realize how pathetic and useless 'friends' are."

"I too, do no like the fact that Lady Hinata was killed," Neji said. "But I don't hold blame on the Leaf. We are ninja, Naruto. As ninja, we must treat every mission as our last. Death is tragic, it can bring sadness and sorrow(a/n:heheh, Naruto song name...), but it is also expectable. Lady Hinata knew this also."

I stood silently.

"Just because you don't have her doesn't mean you don't have us," Choji told me.

"You still have a chance to stop what you're doing, Naru-" Kakashi started.

"Shut up!"

I could feel rage boiling inside of me as everyone stared at m-

'_Boom_'

An explosion echoed in the distance.

"That should be Shizune fighting with the other one that's here," the Hokage said. "Sakura, Shikamaru, go and see how she's doing."

Both Shikamaru and Sakura nodded, and they started making their way to the source of the explosion. Looks like Lamina got caught, but I know he can handle himself. I just need to focus on my targets!

I charged forward, my main target, the Hokage.

"Everyone, protect the Fifth," Iruka said, panic in his voice as he noticed me.

Everyone took a fighting stance, including Kiba, who was missing one of his arms. It makes me laugh at how stupid he looks.

"You must stop this, Naruto!" Lee said. He was the first to get in my way. He came at me with quick combos of taijutsu. I was able to dodge most of the attacks, only having to block a few. As he went for a spinning roundhouse kick, I was able to catch his foot before it hit my face. From the corner of my eye, I saw Choji coming at me in a form of a giant ball, rolling in at a dangerous speed. I smiled as I swept Lee off his feet and swung into the path of Choji's Human Boulder.

"I expected more from you two," I said, reached for two kunai, attached with paper bombs, and threw them Choji, who was still coming at me with the Human Boulder. He was sent flying backward as the explosion detonated. "That's two."

Shino amd Tenten came at me next. Shino began trapping me inside a swarm a beetles. As I was trapped inside, blinded from the outside, many shurikens and kunais came flying inside. I was able to deflect most of them, but it was pretty hard to do since I can't see anything outside of this stupid dome. Looks like I need another bomb.

I threw another kunai/paper bomb at the top of the dome. The explosion created a big gapping hole for. I leaped out, Rasengan in one hand. Tenten was there to meet me, pulling out staff to fight me with. I gave off a small smile as she swung at me, missing, leaving herself wide open.

"Watch out, Tenten!" Ino yelled, as another paper bomb detonated near me and Tenten.

I landed back on the roof, but I still couldn't get a breather. Kiba and Akamaru came at me, Akamaru lunging at me for a bite and Kiba with a kunai in his only available hand. I kicked Akamaru out of the way and charged at Kiba with the Rasegan still in my hand.

"Eat this!" I roared as the Rasengan met with Kiba's chest, sending him spiraling backwards. I reverted my attention back to the remaining. "Don't get in my way!"

I quickly made multiple shadow clone to clear the path for me. I charged at the Hokage as everyone was doing their best to take out the shadowclones. The Hokage caught sight of me and took a defensive stance and I came at her , Rasengan in one hand, kunai in the other.

"Too slow, Naruto," Kakashi said as he quickly made his way through the clones with his Lightning Blade.

"Too predictible, Kakashi!" I as I blocked his Lightning Blade with my Rasengan, like I did against Sasuke's Chidori. The imapct sent both of us flying backwards, by unlike him, I was grabbed by my feet by one of my clones and threw me at the Hokage, who was ready for my attack. "You're mine!"

"I won't be killed by the likes of-" she started before getting restained from behind by a few of my clones. "What?!"

"No!" I heard Iruka and Ino say at the same time.

"Die!"

I felt my kunai sink deep into...Sand?!

I heard a familiar voice come from behind me.

"Naruto Uzumaki, why have you sinken down into the Darkness?"

_**To Be Continued...**_

_**a/n: Well I hope you like this chapter, I thought this was a good point to leave you all hanging:P. Sorry it took awhile for me to actually update, but reality returned and taking up most of my time. *Sigh* Well anyways, I'm try to update as soon as I can, but first I gotta update my other fanfics...Oh yeah, I'd like to thank Gaaralover2247 for the support! I think without it, I would have gave up on the story after Chapter 4...Thank you!**_


	11. Rogues vs The Sand

_**Chapter 10: Rogues vs The Sand(Yeah, the title almost sums up the whole chapter)**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

"Naruto Uzumaki, why have you sinken down into the Darkness?"

I turned to see a Gaara of the Sand, his expression calm as he looked at me.

"Gaara, I didn't expect you to be here..." there was a little irritation in my voice. He just stared for a moment before saying something.

"The Leaf asked for assisance for your retrieval," Gaara told me. "I did not hesitate to accept."

"Aww, I'm touched," I said sarcasticly. "Now, I gonna give you a chance to back off, Gaara. And if you don't, I'll make you regret getting in my way."

"As your friend, I am here to help you. As Kazekage, I cannot allow you to proceed with your plans of revenge," Gaara said,his expression showing some seriousness, but it wasn't too noticeable.

I shook my head in disappointment as I charged forward, another Rasengan spinning in my left hand. Gaara didn't move, or to be more precise, he didn't need to move. The sand, his ultimate defence, blocked my Rasengan without him having to move a finger. In irritataion, I backed off before I could get caught in the sand. The sand lowered, revealing Gaara, who was closing his eyes.

"Are you done?" Gaara said, opening his eyes, and looking at me, determination luminating from his eyes. He then rose one of his arms forward, sending a small wave of sand rushing at me. I leaped back to avoid being swallowed into the sand.

"Gaara, let us help," Kiba insisted.

"No, stay back, I don't want any of you to be caught into the crossfire of this fight," Gaara said, keeping his eyes on me. Kiba seemed reluctant on letting Gaara fight alone, but backed off and joined the others as they stood by, watching, waiting for the right moment to jump into this fight.

"You really think you can beat me, Gaara?" I mocked. "You couldn't even beat me before, even with Shukaku on your side."

Gaara stood at spot, staring me down, his arms crossed. Only three words slipped from his mouth.

"Come, Naruto Uzumaki."

I didn't hesitate to charge at him once more. As I did, more waves of sand were rushing at me, forcing me to slow down and dodge. While dodging each of Gaara's ranged attack, I reached into my pouch to feel how many paper bombs I had left. From what I could tell, I had about six left, so I'd have to use each one to make an opening. I made my way through the relentless attacks of the sand and was now a few feet away from Gaara. Quickly attaching a paper bomb to a kunai and threw at Gaara, who,to no suprise, blocked the kunai, and the sand taking in the exposion, leaving a hole in the wall of sand. I acted quickly, charging through the hole with another Rasengan, though I ended up being blocked by another wall of sand, and my feet were swallowed deep in the sand on the ground, preventing me from moving.

"You're fighting recklessly, Naruto," Gaara said, walking over to me. "If I weren't your friend, you'd be dead instant."

I felt the sand at my feet crawl up my legs as Gaara stopped about two feet away from me.

"Look at you, just because your Kazekage, you're rubbing it on my face that you're better than me," I said, destestment in my voice. "Why are you trying to help me anyways?"

"Because you helped me, Naruto. You helped me see the light that was Hope in the Darkness of hatred and lonliness," Gaara told me, putting his hand on my shoulder. "So in return, I am here to help you see pass this Darkness and into the Light."

There was a moment of silence, which was broken by the sound of my laughter echoing in the air. This put suprised faces on everyone, even Gaara.

"You think you can help me?!" I yelled. "That's laugh! You can't help me! You couldn't even help yourself!"

I felt the sand rise up to my stomach, trapping me inside the cloak I was wearing. One of my arms was stuck near the bottom of my back.

"Planning on killing me now, Gaara?" I said, trying to provoke him.

"I will not kill you, Naruto, I still see as my friend," Gaara told me. "But seeing you as you are now, you seem so pathetic."

Those words made me grit my teeth.

"Don't look down on me!"

I felt a surge of power rush through my body as I broke free from the sand holding me captive. And as soon as I broke free, I threw off my pouch and aimed it at the middle of where Gaara and I were standing. The explosion sent us both flying backwards, but unlike Gaara, I was able to rebound and charge at Gaara with extreme speed. It reminded me of the time Lee and Gaara took each other on at the Chunin Exams a few years ago.

As Gaara was getting up, I was able to catch him off guard and elbowed him in the gut. The speed of his ultimate defense was slower than my own. Taking advantage of the moment, I gave him a hard uppercut, which lifted him into the air. Then I grabbed his ankles and slammed him back first onto the ground. Sand of the gourd was able to take in most of the blow, but I wasn't done. I quickly produced a full-powered Rasengan and forced down Gaara's chest.

"Now die!" I aimed a kunai I had hidden in my cloak at Gaara's head, but before I could even touch him, a giant beast like hand made of sand forced me back, sending me flying inti the railings of the roof. "Ow...What was that?"

As Gaara began standing up, most of the sand that he used began to form something or more like someone...

Before my eyes stood a smaller and slimer verison of Shukaku. The way his body looked like it was made for speed. His arm were big and muscular meaning that he also has strength on his side too. His yellow eyes glared at me as if trying to burn a hole in me.

"This is going to be fun!" the miniture Shukaku laughed.

"Stay calm, Shukaku, we need him alive."

_**POV: Lamina**_

_**Moments ago...**_

"Then how does two on one sound?" the blonde Sand ninja asked. "Just me and Kankuro will fight against you."

"Wait, I can still-" Shizune started before getting interrupted.

"Calm down, Temari was just considering on letting you rest, no need to make a big deal out of our decisions," Kankuro told Shizune.

"Sounds good to me," I said, giving off a weak smile. The bangs of my long black hair partially covered my green eyes. The blonde female, known as Temari, gave me a grin before sending a strong force of wind on me. I did my best to keep on spot, but it isn't easy with my body like this. I was slightly pushed back, but my scythe that was planted into the ground kept me from flying backwords.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kankuro's puppet making its way to me. I quickly unplanted my scythe and swung in a 360, hitting the puppet and brought it to the ground, but that hardly helped me. The hands of the puppet shot out at me, needles shot out from its palms. I was just barely able to dodge the two hands, but I got nick by the poisonous blade nicked J my arm. I quickly grabbed a kunai and stabbed the cut, making it more deep as the infected blood began to pour out. I winced at the pain a bit as i staggered to my knee. I was still being affected by the poison from earlier.

"Damn..." I began to feel a bit light-headed. "I'll have to end this fast if I want to get this poison out of my body..."

"Hey what's wrong? Feeling light-headed?" Temari mocked. "All you need to do is give up."

"Watch how you talk to me, girl. Just because I'm like this doesn't mean I plan on giving up anytime soon," I struggled to my feet, feeling a bit heavier than usual. I took a deep breathe before talking again. "I will not fall to the likes of you two. _Earth Style: Mud Clones_!"

From the ground, the hard soil turned into mud, which began to form together to create a mud copy of myself. Three of these clones were created. All three jumped onto the roof I was on. The two seemed a bit suprised that I was able to perform a jutsu at this state. I gave another weak smile as I signaled the clones to attack.

The clones made their way to their opponents, one heading for Temari, the other two going for Kankuro. Temari tried to blow away the clone that was preparing to attack her, but since they were made of mud, it be hard to do that. The clone attempted to roundhouse kick Temari across the face, but she jumped back, keeping distance from her opponent. Kankuro had brought out another puppet, this one looked more like an animal. It had six arms, a cylinder like head, and two red horns. It was wearing a similar cloak to the other puppet. He used both to fend off the other two clones as they relentlessly attacked.

Noticing all this, I realized that these two are more long ranged fighters. They were both keeping distant from the clones while trying to fight them off. Though it's kinda useless knowing this, my body has become more numb than it used to be.

As I looked up, my vision becaming kinda blurry, I heard something wizz pass my face. Not too long after, an explosion blew me back off the roof, hitting the ground from three stories high. I hardly felt anything, but I knew I was bleeding, and that my body was beginning to strain itself.

I looked back at the two Sand ninja who were staring at my pathetic self. The clones had loss their form and were nothing but a puddle of mud. I began to struggle to my feet, keeping my eyes on Temari and Kankuro.

"Come on, give up already," Kankuro said with a little hint of concern, which confused me.

"I told you...I'm not...going to give...up..." I breathed out each word before collapsing. Still concious, I saw a figure was standing before me, guarding my weak body. "Who-

"Relax, Lamina," these words sounded a bit distorted and I couldn't tell who the voice belonged to. "You're going to be okay."

I began to blackout. The last few words I heard were-

"My name is Angel Ikori..."

_**a/n: Sorry this scene was short, but I couldn't really think of anything else to keep the fight going, I mean how does a person keep fighting when he's been exposed to poison.*Clears throat* Well anyways, I'll make it up to you, reader, with a good fight scene with Gaara and Naruto, alright?**_

_**POV: Naruto**_

"So that's Shukaku, huh..."

Standing before was a smaller version of Shukaku and the Kazekage, Gaara. I stood before the two, trying to keep calm, but the power flowing through my veins began to make me feel a little too excited.

"Look at you, you're almost as excited as I am to fight!" Shukaku laughed. "It most be great to have that power, to have the almighty Nine-tails on your side."

"But unlike us, who shared a bond between Tailed-Beast and Jinchuriki, Naruto doesn't a the Nine-tails' full potential power," Gaara added. Maybe he wasn't meaning to, but his words sounded to me like he was trying to say he was better than me.

"Didn't I tell you! Don't look down on me!" filled with rage, I charged at Gaara, absolutly forgetting about the One-tailed Beast.

Shukaku's movements were faster than I had expected. One moment I'm about to ram through Gaara, the next I find myself being clothelined by an arm that felt like solid rock. I flew back even harder into the railings of the roof, coughing up blood as I was able to catch my breathe.

"You should have died with that hard of a hit!" Shukaku laughed. "You should be thankful! The only reason you're still breathing is because of Kurama's powers!"

Kurama? Who's Kurama?

"Hahahaha, you looked confused kid!" Shukaku pointed out. "What's wrong?! Don't you even know the name of the demon fox inside of you?!"

"What're you-" I began as Gaara cut me off.

"Kurama is the name of the Nine-tailed Fox," Gaara said plainly, arms crossed. "Each Tailed Beast as a specific name they go by. I would be suprised that you don't know his name, the two of you hardly even talk."

"The name of Nine-tails is Kurama?" I said stupidly.

"Are you going to just sit there and repeat what we say, or are you going to fight?!" Shukaku asked. "By the crimson tint of your eyes, I know you still have a lot left in ya!"

Not even giving me enough to get to my feet, Shukaku picked me up and slammed me back on the ground with a large amount of force. Not even giving me enough time to breathe, he sacked me in the stomach and threw me up into the air. I was thrown up pretty high, but Shukaku still kept up, laughing as he grabbed my ankles and threw me back down was a lot of force, making me drop at rapid speed. Gaara was waiting for me at the bottom. With the remaining sand that wasn't used to form Shukaku, Gaara used it to catch me and swallow me inside. Being blinded by all the sand, I couldn't really see anything, but I could feel that I was being lifted into the air. I took this time to focus my mind in the place in my body, the place where the Nine-tailed Fox rested.

_**In Naruto's Mind...**_

I found myself in another dark place, but it was as silent as the last time I was here. I could hear the soft breathing of another being in the room. Not too long after, an eye slowly appeared. It was large and the hatred in themwas too obvious to miss.

"Hello, Nine-tails or should I call you Kurama?" the room began to light up, revealing a giant gate with a seal holding it closed. Behind the gate was a giant fox with nine tails.

"Looks like you actually listened to Shukaku's blabbering," Kurama said. "You can call me by which ever name you want, I could care less. Now, what is it you want, Naruto?"

"You already know what I want, the full potential of your power! With that I can defeat Gaara and kill the FIfth Hokage with ease," I told him.

"Why should I give you that much power? You're just a brat fighting for the wrong reasons," Kurama replied.

"Because this is my body! If I want, I can get us both killed! So you better do as I say!" I demanded.

"You think a threat like that can make me hand over what you want! Boy, you should have died years ago, the only reason why you're still here is because of me! So even if you try to kill yourself, I won't allow it!" Kurama countered. I began to feel more frustrated.

"Why?! Why do you also get in my way to revenge?!" I asked. "You're like Angel! Always telling me that I doing these thing for the wrong reasons, saying that I should think about this more before I make my decision! I know what I want! This is what I want!"

There was long pause of silence.

"What happen to the Naruto that used to protect and cherish his friends..." I heard Kurama whisper, his stare growing kind of soft. "Fine, I'll give you some of my power again."

"Some?! Why not all?!" I demanded to know.

"This seal is here for a reason," Kurama pointed out.

"Then I'll pull it off!" I began to reach the seal.

"Wait, Naruto!" Kurama yelled, I did as he said. "Now is not the time."

"What do you mean now isn't the time?!" I yelled at him.

"Do you know what happens when that seal comes off?" Kurama asked. I didn't anwser. "Exactly. Now listen to me. I will be giving you enough power to fight against Gaara and Shukaku. When you go to fight, you'll be coated in my chakra with five tails. You might not remember but you used the same power to destroy one section of the Village a few days ago. You'll be taking the same appearance as back than, but this time you'll be in more control than you were then."

I gave him a smile before everything went black again.

_**Back to Reality...**_

I was still trapped inside Gaara's Sand Coffin, but the only difference from a few seconds ago to now is that I feel a huge amount of power surging through my body.

With this new feeling of power I broke free from the sand. As I did, I saw everyone's face wearing an expression of shock, even Shukaku seemed a bit suprised, but it didn't take long for him begin is attack on me. The One-tailed Beast lunged at me, attempting for another clotheline, which I easily dodged. I my arms extended as I reached for the the arm of Shukaku. I pulled him down and slingshoted him down to the roof. As he impacted into the roof, I landed on top of him and began to assualt him with furious hits. I then jumped backward into air and opened my mouth, producing a small red ball which was absorbing smaller balls of energy.

"Hold on!" Gaara yelled, as the small ball became a a full-on blast. Gaara was able to block Shukaku with shield of sand. I moved the blast in Gaara's direction. He made a wall of sand to defend himself, but it wasn't enough. The blast broke through the wall and hit Gaara directly. As the blast began to diminish, Gaara was on one knee, his clothes smoking a bit.

"Gaara are you okay?" Ino asked, running over, but stopped as Gaara got to his feet, his face still calm.

"I'm fine, just stay back and guard the Hokage," Gaara's voice had a hint of seriousness. Shukaku stood up glaring at me. "Shukaku, are you ready?"

"Bring it on, Naruto Uzumaki!" Shukaku yelled.

"Rraaaaaah!" I responded in return, charging at Shukaku with extreme speed. I leaped and grabbed Shukaku by the head, charging another blast until a wave of sand knocked me off. Shukaku took advantage of the moment and grabbed me by the head and slammed my against the ground about three time, each one was more given more force than the last. I was able to free myself from the hold by blasting a hole through his hand. I jumped a few yards back as hand regenerated. From what just happened, I could tell that Gaara was playing the defensive while Shukaku is on the offensive.

"That burned," Shukaku said. "Can't I just kill him? It'd be so much easier."

"I know this is difficult, but we have to keep him alive," Gaara reminded him.

"Well we better hurry, I can't really stay like this forever," Shukaku informed Gaara. He then made a running start at me. I jumped backwards, rapid firing blasts at Shukaku, Gaara and the bystanders. Shukaku merely dodged all of them, Gaara defended himself with a stronger wall of sand, and Neji was able to deflect each blast with his Rotation. "You think that'll work?! Think again!"

Shukaku jumped up into the air and wrapped both his hands around my neck, attempting the slam me back onto the roof. But what he didn't know is that I wanted this to happen. I charged up another ball of energy and blasted him full-on in the face. His grip loosened and he began to drop back to the roof. I dived back down and rebounded onto the roof, going into a full run again. This is where the Leaf stepped in.

Tenten leaped into the air and threw multiple kunai/paper bombs, which exploded around me, unable to slow me down. I jumped into the air to knock Tenten down, only to have to dodge a somewhat awkard Fang Over Fang by Kiba and Akamaru. As them came back for another try, I once again dodged with ease and blasted another enery blast at the two, sending them both flying over the railings. I proceeded on the previous target, but this time her own teammates. Tenten, now on the ground, was being guarded by Neji and Lee. As I proceeded to claw down on the three, Neji was able to counter with another Rotation, knocking me backwards. Lee, opening the the third gate, the Gate of Life, went in for a Hidden Lotus while I was in midair, but he utterly failed. I was able to whip him away with two of my tails. I then released a full-on blast at Neji, who was unprepared to block it, Tenten getting caught in the crossfire, sending both of them into the railings.

Next up on the plate was Choji and Shino. Shino was able to get his beetles wrapped around my arms and legs and even over my mouth. Choji charged at me, enlarging his fist as he did. If I could, I would laugh at there pitiful actions, but in this form I can't even speak Japanese. I easily broke free from the hold of the beetles, releasing another blast at Choji, sending backwards. I then charged at Shino with remarkable speed, clawing him across the chest, making him tumble backwards painfully. Gaara was next. He stood his ground, sending multiple balls of sand at me. I lunged into the midst of the barrage of sand, spinning through the air, dodging each and every ball of sand, easily making my way to him. A wall of sand blovked my way to Gaara. I would have smiled knowing how futile this was. i shot three energy blasts, then I broke through the wall with bare strength. I tackled Gaara down, and began charging another blast, 'til I heard the fast steps of Kakashi and Iruka. Kakashi using two Lightning Blades and Iruka wielded with two demon wind shurikens. I let Gaara go and charged at the next two, concealing the small energy ball in my mouth.

Kakashi went in to land one of his Lightning Blades, landing it right on my chest. Thanks to Kurama, his attack didn't pierce through me like it was suppose to. As he went in for the second one, I shot out the ball of energy directly at his face, sending him back. I went on to Iruka next. Iruka looked a bit hesitant to fight. I, in the other hand, had no mercy and went on for the kill. My hand pierced through Iruka's right shoulder, making him scream in pain. I then began charging up another blast. Iruka only stared, his eyes watery.

"Naruto...I forgive you," were in last words before I releaseed a full-powered blast to him face.

"Iruka!" I heard Kakashi yell as the empty shell fell to the ground, my hand sliding out of his shoulder.

Not thinking twice about what I've done, I charged ahead, only to be stopped by the sand I was standing on. Shukaku then appear in front of me, clothelining me, then dragging me around violently by my foot.

"Don't think this is over, kid!" Shukaku yelled, throwing me into the air, then he started hitting me with a barrage of attacks. I could only manage to block or ,if I was lucky, dodge. But as things felt like they were getting worse, Shukaku's hit began to feel more like mush. "No, I can't be out of time now!"

But it was too late, the smaller version of Shukaku diminished to nothing but sand. I took advantage of the moment and dived down to the roof and charged at the Fifth Hokage with a large amount of speed. Gaara tried to make a wall in my path, but the movement of the sand was too slow and I was able to make it pass what was supposed to be a wall. As I got closer, the Hokage took a defensive stance, preparing for my attack. I got ready to slash her body to tiny bit...but another stood in my way, Ino Yamanaka. Ino was standing in front of the Hokage, kunai at the ready. I bet she knew that a single kunai won't help her situation, but what else could she do but have her last moment as defending the Hokage.

As I closed in for the fatal blow, I saw Ino close her eyes and whisper somethng and waited for, eyes still closed. Whatever she whispered will be the last words she'll say because now-

"_Fire Style: Shooting Star_!"

A figure fell from the sky coated in flames, and came running at me with speed that rivaled with mine. The figure kneed me in the stomach, then spun around for a roundhouse kick, which knocked me backwards, almost hitting the railings of the roof.

As the flames faded away, it became clear who the figure was. His black sleeveless shirt and cargo pants were in the same condition as yesterday, not a rip and cut. He was holding his red sword holster, one of his hands holding the handle to his katana.

"Well look at you..." Angel said.

_**To Be Continued...**_

_**a/n: Whew, this chapter took awhile to write. I was feeling a bit...out of the mood. Now, let's get on with what I'm trying to tell you. I got some good news and some bad news. Now which do you want to hear first? Oh wait, I don't give damn about your opinion! Hahahaha!...Jk. Readers' opinions are always important.**_

_**Well anyways, before I get side tracked again, let's start with the good news. The good news is...da ta daaaaaa...that the bad news isn't as bad as you think it is...yeah, that's the good news...I know it was a bad joke, give me a break.**_

_**The bad news is that I'm going to be on a short pause on this story, just so I can give my other stories a few updates. Not that bad for bad news, huh?**_

_**Well, 'til next time...**_


	12. A Change in Heart

_**Well I have returned from the world of insanity known as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I was having a lot of fun writing the first two chapters and kinda lost track of time and seriously almost forgot the plot to this story, hahaha. Oh, before I forget, I'm writing this a little differently than I did the last chapters.**_

_**Well then, let's get this chapter started.**_

_**Chapter 11: A Change in Heart**_

POV: Angel

"Well, look at you..."

I found myself staring at what is supposed to be Naruto Uzumaki. His body was coated in a red coat, with five tails whipping about. What used to be his blue eyes were now two glowing white eyes. His fingernail looked more like claws as I examined them. There came a low growl as he stared back at me.

"Looks like your not happy to see me," I said, putting a small smirk on my face. I could feel all the stares of the ninja who were either injured or standing behind me.

"Angel, you came..." I heard Ino say behind me.

"You called for me, didn't you?" I said, keeping my eyes on Naruto.

"Wait, where's Sasuke?" Ino asked.

"Not here," I said plainly. "But don't worry, he's still alive, he's just carrying someone for us."

"Someone? Who's that someone? One of your injured lackeys?" the Hokage asked.

"Nah, someone from this here village," I walked up closer to Naruto. "Naruto, Hinata Hyuga is alive."

I knew this would put surprised expression on everyone face. Everyone except one, there was a body lying very still, his eye lifelessly staring up into the blue sky. I felt a little disgusted by the sight of the fallen Leaf ninja. I looked away and put my focus back on Naruto, who seemed a little still, but he was still in a pose to attack.

"You still don't believe me, huh," I reached for something in my pocket. The headband I pulled out surprised the Hokage and Ino, who were the only two who could really see what it was. Tying the headband around my neck, I took a deep breath as I let the Leaf insignia shine in the sun. "I'm no longer known as Angel the Rogue Ninja, I am once more, Angel Ikori, Ninja of the Leaf and the only son of the Great Ikori Clan."

"Angel, what're you doing?" Ino asked.

"I'm protecting my home," I answered while drawing out my katana. "Now, come, Naruto Uzumaki!"

Without hesitation, the five-tailed Naruto came rushing at me, full intents to kill. I thought about dodging, which would have been the best choice, but I had two people standing behind me, and one of them is really important to me to not put in harm's way. So I stood my ground and block the claws with my blade. The impact sent both of us either sliding or flying backwards. I, who was the one who slide backwards, performed some quick hand signs.

"_Wind Style: Air Bullet_!" a strong force of air came rushing at Naruto, almost catching him off guard. But fortunatly for him, he was able to dodge in time. Diving down, Naruto produced a small ball in his mouth. I knew exactly what this was. "Damn, everyone! Scatter!"

Though, I thought they would be more reluctant, the Leaf ninja and the Kazekage removed themselves from the roof, Kakashi grabbing the fallen ninja. Alone on the roof, I was all that was left for Naruto to fire at. A barrage of red energy balls shot out from Naruto's mouth. I zigzagged across the roof, dodging each ball of energy.

"Man, that was close," I sighed as I dodged the last ball of energy. Staring me down on the other side of the roof was Naruto, growling at the sight of me. "Did you really not like me that much?" I laughed a bit. "Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't really like you that much either."

I made the first move and charged at Naruto. From this distance, I could see him charging up one of those energy balls again, so I knew if I wanted to land some hits in myself I'd have to hurry.

'_I hate using the same jutsu twice in a fight, but_...' I perform another set of hand signs. "_Fire style: Shooting Star_!" a coat of flames surrounded me, boosting my speed. In almost a second, I was able to kick Naruto straight at his jaw, the energy he stored together in that ball diminished. I then grabbed his arm and swung him around and slammed back on the ground, the hand I used felt like it was burning. I jumped back into the air and prepared another jutsu. "_Wind Style: Wind Cleavers_!" with the katana in my other hand, I cut the air, sending a large wave of air that could slice through the human body.

Naruto quickly dodged, leaving the sharp air to cut through the roof. As a part of the roof slide of to the ground, Naruto took the opportunity shoot a large energy blast at me, who was a little vulnerable. I made a shadowclone, which threw me downwards to another roof. I was diving down pretty fast that I couldn't really control myself.

'_Oh, this is gonna hurt_...' I thought as I closed my eye, ready for the impact, but instead of me crashing to a roof, I land on something a little softer...and a little grainy. I opened my eyes to see that I landed into a large mass of sand. "Well, this is comfy," the sand lowered a bit to the roof, bringing me to the Kazekage and Hokage. "Oh, it's you two. You're not doing this to stop me, are you?"

"Why're you helping us?" the Hokage asked. I looked over at her, to the Kazekage, then to Naruto, who was sitting on the railing, his glowing eyes staring me down. He looked like a predator watching his prey.

"This my home too, you know..." I answered as I got to my feet. "Besides someones gotta stop Naruto. He fighting for vengeance without any reason to."

"Hinata, the girl he loved, is dead, and he blame me for that," the Hokage said in a pathetic voice that it made me want to hit her.

"Didn't you hear me before, she's alive," I repeated. "Stop blaming yourself and prove Naruto wrong," the Hokage looked at me with a confused look. "The way I hear it, Naruto says you don't know how to do your job as Hokage. Prove him wrong and protect your village, put the people first, put your life on the line!"

What I said must have hit a switch because the Hokage's eyes no longer shower patheticness, now it showed determination. I gave her a little smile as she came to stand by my side, ready to fight. The Kazekage joined us on his platform of sand.

"My name is Gaara, Kazekage of the Sand," Gaara introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, Gaara," I replied. I looked over to the Hokage. "Now what should I call you, Hokage of the Leaf?"

"My name is Tsunade," Tsunade answered.

"Well, my name is Angel, as you may already now," I looked back at Naruto, who was charging another one of his blasts. "Gaara, Tsunade, can you aid me to not only protect the Konoha, but to bring Naruto to his senses?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Tsunade replied as Gaara surrounded us in a barrier of sand, blocking the energy blast that Naruto shot at us.

"First things first, we need to lead Naruto out of the village so he can't harm anyone else," I said as a hole in the barrier opened. "You two head to the Training Grounds, I'll have him chase me to there."

"The Traing Grounds? Why there?" Tsunade asked.

"Let's just say we'll have more of the advantage there," I replied as I leaped through the hole and on to the roof. I grabbed two kunai with paper bombs stringed attached, and threw them at Naruto, who still sitting on that railing. The explosion sent him flying back. "Yo, ugly, over here! Forget those two, I'm your opponent!" I taunted him as he came diving down in my direction. Smiling to myself, I leapt from roof to roof making my way to the wall surrounding Konoha.

I made a quick glance back. Naruto was on my tail, getting closer and closer. Sighing, I looked ahead and took another leap, landing a bit awkwardly on the wall. With a bad start, I ran as fast as I could up the wall, but it wasn't fast enough. Naruto, who landed on the wall with ease, was closing in on me, leaving me to resort to fighting him here.

"Bring it-" I started before I notices a flash of purple fly past between us. Next thing I now, an explosion makes me tumble backward violently and Naruto is saying "hello" to solid ground. Focusing chakra through out my whole body, I was able to slow down without falling off the side of the wall. I sighed once more before I was tapped on the shoulder. "You know, Ino, this is gonna be dangerous and I highly suggest you don't get yourself in this." I informed the light-blonde girl as I felt her arms wrap around my neck.

"Make me," she whispered into my ear. Muttering under my breath, I turned around, sweeping Ino off her feet and into my arms.

"This is really not the time for this..." I said, running up the remainder of wall, carrying Ino up with me. Once I got up the wall, I looked down to see the five-tailed boy quickly making his way up the wall, charging another one of his stupid energy blasts. "I'm really starting to hate those thing...Hold on tight, Ino," I said before backflipping of the wall and on top of a tree.

"I can walk, you know," she told me.

"What, you don't like this?" she didn't answer, she only looked away from me, turning red in embarrassment. I only smiled before putting focus back on Naruto, who seemed ready to fire. I sighed as a full-powered blast came hurling at us. "Let's get a move on..."

I made my way to the Training Grounds, Ino in my arms, a large was of energy trailing behind us. It seemed a like a long while before I could actually see our destination. I sped up like my life depended on it...which it actually did. I glanced back and the blast seemed to diminish. I looked over at the top of the wall to see Naruto dashing on his fours, watching us from a distance. I made a jump into the middle of the lake, landing on the water as if it were land. Standing around me were the Kazekage and the Hokage.

"You guys ready?" I asked while putting Ino on her feet. She looked away from everyone else, probably trying to hide the embarassment on her face. I tried not to mind it and focus at the task at hand.

"Yes, we wouldn't be here if we weren't," Tsunade answered. "So what's your plan, Angel?" I turned over to Gaara.

"Gaara, I need you to try capturing Naruto in a large mass of sand," I looked toward the spot of the wall where Naruto was glaring at us. "Also, being a jinchuuriki yourself, do you know if there's a limit to using the Tailed-beast power?"

"There is," Gaara answered simply. "Naruto has been using the Nine-tailed Fox's power for quite some time now, he'll become 'human' again soon."

"Alright, then my plan I have in mind is going to be efficient in this matter," I felt something soft and furry brush my leg. I looked down to see Fang. "Good, you're here. I need you to lay paper bomb around the lake." I reverted back to Tsunade. "Tsunade, after Gaara captures Naruto, I'm gonna give you a chance to give him a hit. Make it count and don't hold anything back."

"What can I do?" Ino asked.

"After Naruto hits the water, I need you to detonate the paper bombs," she frowned at the idea. "Sorry I can't really think of anything else..." I thought for a moment. "Back me up after explosion. I guess I could use the help."

"Okay," Ino replied with a smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, lovebirds, get your heads straight, Naruto's making his move!" Tsunade pointed at behind me. I turned around to see that she was right. Naruto was airborne, diving down towards the Training Grounds.

"Gaara, now!" I yelled as Gaara sent a large amount of sand in Naruto's direction.

"It's useless to try and avoid this," Gaara said in a calm voice as Naruto tried his best to maneuver the sand, only to get swallowed in the large mass. "What're you waiting for?" Gaara said, looking at me. I nodded in response.

"_Fire Style: Fire Storm_!" a large burst of fire shot out of my palm, surrounding the large mass of sand in fire, making it turn into a large sphere-like glass with Naruto trapped right in the middle. "Tsunade, go!" Tsunade leaped into the air, making above the glass sphere, getting ready for what looked like a heel drop.

"_Heaven Kick of Pain_!" Tsunade's foot met the glass, which shattered to small pieces. Still descending with the force of her heel drop, she was able to hit the five-tailed Naruto on the chest, sending Naruto down with a lot of speed. Fang, Gaara, Ino and I leaped off the water before Naruto made his great impact into the middle of the lake. WIthout me having to say something, Ino threw a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it at one of the paper bombs Fang set-up. The explosion made a majority of the lake's water fly up like an eruption of a volcano.

"Let's do this, Ino," I said as we landed on the grassy field of the Training Ground. Ino gave me a nod and we headed into the lake, water rapidly dropping on us like a rainstorm.

Now it's gonna get all serious...

_**To Be Continued...**_

_**a/n: I apologize if this chapter was shorter than you might have expected, but I wanna keep this story going just a bit longer. *Stops and thinks for a moment* Wow, I can't really think of anything else to inform you about. *Thinks even harder***_

_**Oh! How about this, if your into Higurashi, then read my story, **__**Making a Mircale**__**. That is all...**_


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